Teenagers
by HalloweenJesus
Summary: Teenagers are awkward, hormonal beings. Boruto and Sarada know this, but are only just now figuring out that it's okay to be awkward, even if you're on your first date and need to meet up at a hidden location to avoid the inevitably terrible wrath of one of said teenagers' fathers.
1. First Date

**A/N:** Hey guys! I just got on Wellbutrin for my ADHD and Anxiety, so I'm pretty amped today and want to write something I'm unfamiliar with. Thus, a Boruto/Sarada fic! Let me know what you think; I don't see all too many of these just yet, probably because the series is so young. Wish me luck!

PS: Kishimoto owns literally everything.

PSS: Boruto and Sarada are like 14 here I guess?

PSSS: 10 Ryo = 1 USD (100 Yen = 10 Ryo is a confirmed metric from Kishimoto, so the math is pretty simple)

* * *

Boruto yawned as he stood up put on his black jacket, having taken a late-day nap in his room after getting home from a mission earlier today. Stretching out, he reminisced. Things had gone smoothly; his team had been required to slay a gargantuan tortoise that was ruining a local lakeside town's sugar cane crop. It had taken a long while at first, but one they'd figured out that his shell was weak to Wind ninjutsu, the task had been quite easy. And thus, he was another 1000 Ryo richer.

It was quite funny really; his team went on so many missions that he'd already built up quite a reserve of cash, and he didn't even need it. Frankly, he was surprised his mom wasn't forcing him to pay rent or something seeing as he wasn't exactly the most willing contributor to his chores at home. At his age, Naruto had been living in an apartment by himself. That was pretty crazy to think of; he couldn't imagine living on his own. Speaking of his father, Naruto was out of the house pulling an overnight shift, as usual. Despite that, Boruto couldn't bring himself to be particularly mad at his father this evening.

_Ne, I'm kind of glad dad isn't here tonight..._

Yes, for once he was in fact glad that the Hokage wasn't present. There was something he had to do tonight and explaining it to his mother was already going to be quite an embarrassing chore. He couldn't imagine the mess it would make if he talked to his dad about what he had planned.

Frankly, he wasn't even sure if his dad had ever even _been_ on a date. Then again, neither had he, so there wasn't really much of an argument to be made.

Boruto reddened briefly at the thought. He was going on a date. A _date_. Shikadai would freak when he heard about this! Well, maybe not freak, it was _Shikadai_ after all, but regardless he'd think it was cool... maybe. Eh, who cared, he was giddy with excitement, and admittedly very nervous. It was 8:00 now; he had to meet his date at 8:30. That would be plenty of time.

Boruto then walked down the stairs briskly, hitai-ite tied around his neck and just barely covered by the inner edges of his jacket. He didn't need it on his forehead right now, and those things got a tad uncomfortable after a while. Walking past the kitchen, Boruto was glad that his mother was nowhere to be found, letting out a sigh of relief. The sooner he could leave the better, and to be honest, if he could leave without telling his mother where he was going, that would be a good thing.

_Phew, I guess I'm in the clear._

Then of course, things went ever so slightly wrong as he made it to the door.

"Boruto? Where are you going so late?"

A soft voice had called from behind him, in the living room. Turning his neck around in almost a comically slow fashion, he found himself looking at a wide-eyed, vaguely inquisitive Hinata. His mother had caught him.

_Damn it! I was so close._

So Boruto forced himself to choke out a reply, albeit with a highly flushed face and a blatantly nervous tone.

"Ah! Mom... I'm just headed out to get in some shuriken throwing practice! Ye-yeah...just shuriken throwing! Sasuke-Sensei says he won't teach me any new jutsu until my basics are better, so I figured I'd go work on it in my off-time..."

His mother eyed him suspiciously for a moment, her usually soft look breaking, if only a tiny bit. Then, she sighed and spoke, seemingly unbothered.

"Alright. I'm proud to see you taking the initiative to train yourself. One question though... wouldn't it be better to practice shuriken throwing with Sarada? She's _very_ good at it, isn't she?"

If Boruto had water in his mouth, he would be spitting it out.

_Shit! Mothers are too damn perceptive!_

Sparing himself a tad more embarrassment, instead of answering, Boruto just bolted for the door, and swung it open, simply calling out to his mom in a rushed mess of words that _could_ be described as an excuse if you used a microscope.

"Heymomsorrygottagoitsalreadylate!"

The door slammed, and Boruto was off, already leaping away from his house, building to building. That said, even though he had only just started moving, he was already sweating bullets. The power of a mother was not to be underestimated.

Although he'd never know, the moment after he left, Hinata briefly chuckled to herself over a soft smile. Her son needed to learn to hide his intentions better.

* * *

By the time he got to the training ground, Boruto was panting, hands to his knees. Had he been followed? Rapidly glancing around, he observed his surroundings, scanning them for any sign of life. The coast looked clear; just the usual forested surroundings and lake. Glancing down at his watch, he checked the time.

_8:15 PM... she should be here in like fifteen minutes the-_

"You're early?"

A familiar, seemingly inquisitive voice called out from behind him. Of course she was already here. Frantically straightening his back and turning himself around, Boruto found himself face to face with Sarada, wearing her red jacket and...jeans instead of shorts? This was...new. Unsure how to actually prepare a response to her quite literally calling him out, he responded in the most natural way possible; with distaste and a venomous tone.

"Why does it sounds like a question, eh!?"

Sarada just crossed her arms and frowned, turning her head away as she replied, seemingly disinterested.

"You just aren't usually one to be this early is all. I actually figured you'd stand me up."

Boruto sighed almost sweat dropped; were her expectations really that low?! Trying his best to not sound like he was lamenting a jail sentence, he replied, hoping to gain at least a little bit of credibility.

"Ne, I'd never stand you up! I even escaped a terrible beast to meet you tonight!"

He puffed up his chest a little after the last part. Sarada turned her head back towards him and looked at him with suspicion in her eyes before replying.

"And which beast might that have been?"

Boruto's moment of pride was quickly squashed, much like a bug.

"...My mother?"

Sarada just sighed before... laughing? She covered her mouth with her right hand as if she was hiding something, but this sound was distinctly laughter. He didn't hear her laugh often. Boruto of course, just sort of stared at her while she did so, coming to a realization that he'd certainly dwelled upon before coupled with another that he hadn't ever noticed.

_She's really pretty... and she has a cute laugh? Is that a thing? I dunno, but it sure seems like it._

Of course, being a teenage boy with no impulse control, Boruto did the least smooth thing possible and blurted it out.

"Your laugh is cute."

Sarada's eyes widened before her entire face reddened in what appeared to be a blush. That was good, right? Well, maybe not, seeing as she immediately turned around and began walking towards the path back to the village. Worried for a moment, Boruto was about to speak when Sarada did it for him.

"...Idiot. Come on, let's go get something to eat."

Boruto's eyes widened before he broke out into a grin; he hadn't messed things up _too_ terribly. Quickly catching up to Sarada, he walked alongside her, quite content with the way things were going so far.

* * *

They were about 10 minutes from the the village when Sarada broke what had amounted to mostly silence up until now.

"Where are we eating?"

_Shit! I hadn't thought about that! How stupid am I?_

He had to figure out something quickly; what did you say in a situation like this? Letting his instincts take the wheel for a moment, he blurted out what amounted to on-the-spot bullshit.

"Oh! I figured we'd um... eat somewhere you wanted to go?"

Thank God that had been what his brain came up with. It was pretty much the only time tonight that his instincts had been on point tonight. Letting the lady decided tended to be a good thing to do, right? Fuck, he didn't know, he was fourteen and new to all of this!

_Please work, please work, please work..._

"Oh, alright. How does Ichiraku's sound?"

Ramen? He loved ramen! Although, Boruto didn't even know Sarada enjoyed it. Odd.

"I didn't know you liked ramen."

Sarada just glanced at him and smiled a tad before replying.

"Mama makes it whenever papa comes home. I think he got hooked on it because of your dad, actually."

That made a surprising amount of sense. Boruto nodded, satisfied with the answer, and kept on walking before thinking of yet another question to ask.

"Why did we meet at the training ground instead of in town? Wouldn't it have been faster to meet there?"

Sarada nodded, affirming his statement, but then replied with an answer he wasn't expecting, using a significantly more subdued and almost embarrassed tone.

"...I was worried papa would follow me if I told him I was going downtown. If we got caught meeting at the training ground, it would be a lot easier to come up with an excuse than if we were caught in town, no?"

Boruto gulped. The idea of _Sasuke_ finding him on a date with his daughter was quite terrifying.

"Yeah, it was probably a good idea now that I think about it. I'd rather our date go uninterrupted by my sudden murder at the hands of your father."

Sarada, once again, began laughing after hearing this. Boruto withheld his compliments this time, but _did_ laugh along with her. This was turning out to be a very enjoyable experience. It became even more so when Sarada spoke again, this time quite suddenly and without any inhibition, as if she'd been working up to saying whatever it was she was about to say. Extending her left arm outwards towards Boruto with an open palm, she looked at him with soft eyes, speaking just as softly.

"Hold my hand?"

Boruto, for the second time tonight, blushed, glancing around wildly to try and hide it before inadvertently letting eyes met with Sarada's. In that moment, he could tell that she was thinking the exact same thing he was.

_Just do it, dammit!_

So, without the exchanging of any more words, Boruto simply extended his right arm and took Sarada's hand in his own. Immediately upon contact, his eyes widened with intrigue.

_She's really... warm? Why is her hand so warm?_

Sarada, as if reading his mind, grumbled out a simple, oddly disdainful response towards the blonde's surprise.

"...it's my nature type. Fire-Release users are _really _warm all the time. Trust me, it's not as nice as it sounds; makes wearing sweaters a living hell."

Boruto failed to stifle a grin and chuckle at the image of Sarada wearing a sweater. The picture his brain had conjured up looked distinctly like a children's librarian. This being said, his laughter earned him an evil glare from her, as well as a swift punch in the shoulder from her still-free right hand.

"'Ow! What was that for?"

Sarada simply puffed up her cheeks and turned her head away, speaking in a blatantly exaggerated tone of accusation.

"Laughing at a lady is impolite."

Boruto rolled his eyes before attempting to defend himself.

"Hey! It's not my fault you only wear short-sleeved shirts!"

Sarada turned her head back towards him ever so slightly, sparing him a brief glance before sighing and speaking in an equally exaggerated tone.

"_Fine, _I suppose you're allowed _one _laugh... but no more! On another note, when did you start noticing what I wore?"

When _had_ he started paying attention to her clothes? Trying his best to mask his intentions, he snuck a glance in Sarada's direction to simply just look at her face for a brief moment. Turning away before she could notice, lest he be punched again, he thought about it for a second.

_It was that day on top of the Hokage monument, with Mitsuki, I think... yeah, that when I first realized how pretty she was. I paid attention to what she was wearing starting around then._

It was almost always the same thing, of course. A red dress, or a red shirt, or a red skirt; here was a lot of red, but still, anything that had to do with how she looked interested Boruto, more than any other girl around him certainly had. It even interested him perhaps too much, because soon before long, as their walk towards the village was coming to an end, his mind began to wander in a bit of a risky direction.

_Her shirt's pretty, as always... and tight, too. I wonder if **everything**_ _she wears __is red..._

He then of course, gulped very loudly and snapped himself back to the realm of reasonable possibility. As much as Boruto's brain wanted to start dreaming of all the clothes he couldn't see, this was a first date, and he was effectively the most inexperienced person alive when it came to any sort of physicality. He'd kissed somebody _once_ on a dare, and that was about it. Unfortunately for him, Sarada had noticed the gulp, and had _hopefull__y _not noticed the fact that his pants were had quickly become very snug during his little mental vacation. Turning her to face him with a smirk on her face, she spoke in a relatively calm, inquisitive tone.

"You excited?"

Shit, she had noticed! With his face quickly turning into a wildfire, Boruto frantically searched for an excuse to hide his particular predicament.

"Oh! Well, uh...you're v-very pretty and um..."

Yet, to his surprise, Sarada merely raised an eyebrow in response, and Boruto stopped talking _very_ quickly. Looking him over as if she was suspicious of something, she mounted her reply quickly.

"I was talking about the food, dumbass. What did you think I mean- ohhhhh. Oh. OH!"

Well, it was good to know he wasn't the only one blushing anymore. However, unlike the horrific scowl he'd expected, Sarada's grin had held steadfast after her recognition of his... "issue", laughter following from her mouth instead of a scream like he would have imagined.

"H-hey! It's not funny! I can't control it!"

_Are all girls this evil?_

Sarada quieted down quite quickly after that, but she was clearly still amused.

"S-sorry *snicker*, it's just... you're so embarrassed by it!"

Boruto looked legitimately offended for a moment, his tone placing this on full display as he pointed an accusatory finger in her direction.

"Of course I am! What would you do if I found out you were wet and started laughing!?"

Sarada feigned a frown, although seeming to legitimately ponder upon his question for a brief moment before replying, this time with a tone that was a tad softer than earlier.

"It's not a big deal, it's natural. I just didn't expect it is all."

His eyes brightened at the notion that Sarada wasn't horribly offended. Boruto then managed to get a reply out, although quite quietly in very stark opposition to his usual behavior.

"...Why wouldn't you? You're a very pretty girl and that tends to be what happens around pretty girls."

This time it was Sarada's turn to be quiet for a moment.

"...thank you. I don't get that a lot... or from anybody besides Chocho, really."

With that, Boruto finally managed to get back his smile from earlier.

"Hey, I guess that just means I get to be the first person to prove her right!"

At that, Sarada laughed once more, although Boruto still had another question to ask.

"I dunno how to phrase this, really, but, is it okay to talk about this stuff? Like, with a girl? I know about most of it, but I just figured this wasn't the kind of thing you talked about on a date, especially not a first one."

Sarada cocked her head, thinking about it for a second, only to reply in a seemingly affirmative tone.

"I don't see why not; we're teenagers and we're on a date, no need to dance around it. It's not unreasonable to think about things like that, although like you said, I guess it's a little bit embarrassing. I'm sure we'll get used to that kind of thing though. I hope so, at least. I just don't think we need to be worried about being awkward, since that's a given. We should just have fun, I guess."

Boruto simply nodded his head in response before beginning to walk alongside her again. He loved the fact that she was so relaxed about these things; he'd have expected her to be as high-strung as she was during missions, but no, deep down, Sarada was just a very... _chill_ girl.

_I'm really glad I got her before somebody else._

And even though he didn't know it at the moment, she was glad too.

* * *

Dinner went off without a hitch, surprisingly enough. There were no run-ins with teammates, or awkward discussions about human anatomy, just an enjoyable meal shared between two people. And thus, it was coming to the time at which they had to say goodbye for the night. They were standing on a lamp-lit pathway near Boruto's home, having walked to a nearby park after eating to get some fresh air. There was nobody around them, and for that, the duo was grateful.

"You know I can walk you home, right?"

Sarada shook her head, smiling as she spoke.

"I'm pretty sure papa would notice you, and if he did, he'd probably know exactly what we'd been up to. That's...not something I think you'd like very much."

Boruto sighed and replied, resigning himself to the idea that he'd probably never be able to be the gentleman he was probably supposed to be.

"Ah well, I suppose we'll just have to say goodbye here then. Did you have fun?"

Sarada nodded, speaking with what amounted to simple happiness.

"Absolutely. Thanks for taking me out, Boruto-kun."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Kun?"

Sarada gave him an expectant look while she replied?

"Why, would you rather I call you an idiot?"

Boruto snorted, trying his best not to laugh; there had been enough untimely laughter from both parties tonight, the last thing he needed was to mess things up at the last moment of the date. Then, mustering all the confidence he could, he spoke the ballsiest sentence of the night. It could either be incredibly corny or incredibly charming; he didn't know just yet.

"I dunno, idiot's got a nice ring to it. I always liked the fact that you came up with a nickname for me; it helped me figure out that you liked me as much as I liked you."

_Please don't backfire, please don't backfire, please don't backfire._

Sarada only stared at him for a moment before smiling; she'd made the same decision to not laugh that he had, he imagined. Only she'd hidden it better.

"Yeah, well, idiot it is then."

Boruto gave her a farcical frown before replying, spurred on by his newfound confidence.

"Awe... can I at least be _your _idiot?"

Wide-eyed, this time, Sarada couldn't hide her laughter. Boruto's resulting frown was quite real when compared to his last.

"S-sorry, it's just... was that your way of asking me to be your girlfriend?"

Boruto spoke, almost offended, although knowing from previous experience that she meant well.

"So what if it was?"

It took Sarada a moment to calm down, but upon doing so, her reply lifted Boruto's spirits into the stratosphere.

"Haha. Yeah, sure; you can be _my_ idiot. But I want something before I go."

He gulped. Did she mean-

_Calm down. Remember that it's okay to talk about_ things.

"Can I assume that you want me to kiss you?"

Sarada blushed upon hearing the words themselves. So she WAS still more comfortable with subtlety. It was good to know that he still had a few buttons to push.

"...maybe I do. I guess you'll just have to try and see if it works out well for you.

Boruto smirked to try and hide how scared he was. What if he messed it up? He'd done this once for god's sakes, he didn't know if Sarada had ever done it, and it was all just scary and-

"Boruto. We agreed to not be afraid of these kind of things, didn't we? If I'm going to be Hokage I can't be afraid of a kiss."

Looking Sarada straight in the eyes, he saw a soft but scared look that reminded him that she was just as new at this as he was. That being said, he figured it wouldn't do to let her leave unhappy.

"I guess your right hand man can't be either, then."

And with that, Boruto lifted Sarada's glasses off of her head with his left hand before leaning in and pressing his lips to hers ever so softly.

_I don't want to push my luck, but wow, she really means it when she says ALL of her is warm._

After a few seconds he pulled away to see a smiling Sarada standing in front of him.

"That was... nice. I liked it, even if it was a bit tame."

Boruto simply shrugged before replying.

"Yeah, it was nice. And even if it was tame, we have plenty of time to get better at it."

Sarada laughed before beginning to walk off.

"I suppose we do. Say... are you busy tomorrow night?"

Boruto shook his head, replying expectantly.

"Nope; why, do you have something in mind?"

Sarada shot him a smirk before replying.

"I might. I guess you'll just have to wait and see. Have a good night, idiot."

And with that, she flickered away on her merry way home. Turning around to walk towards his home, Boruto felt satisfied, among other things, but most prominently, he was excited and looking forwards to next time. Maybe things wouldn't be as awkward next time.

_Nah, probably not._

That being said, the fear of awkwardness didn't stop his mind from wandering; only this time, Boruto welcomed it with open arms.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed this! If you want to see this become a lil series, please review and favorite; I'd love to keep writing this kind of thing.


	2. Secrets

**A/N: **So um... you all wanted a series. Like... a lot. I've received about 10 private messages asking for another chapter and a good number of comments as well. I can't promise I'll be consistent with updates and I know it'll take a while to get through but like; this is really fun to write, so I'mma try my best. Here we go! Chapter 2.

**PS: **Kishimoto owns everything, including my soul and Naruto.

* * *

The earliest beams of the coming day's sunlight were shining through Boruto's window when he awoke. He'd been having a _delicious_ dream; he was at Ichiraku's, awaiting a bowl of ramen, and better yet, Konohamaru-niisan was paying! He'd sat down, made his order, and the food had just arrived. Then finally the climatic moment, in which he was about to down the first gulp of his wonderful meal finally came...but not before he was unceremoniously woken up due to a knocking on his window. To say the least, he was a bit distraught. Sitting up and shaking his messy hair out of his face, he grumbled groggily while taking a look to see who was at his window.

_Eh? I-it's so damn early...who the hell- oh. _

Of course it was Sarada. What other human being would be awake at this ungodly hour? Well, for some reason she had a disdainful glare plastered across her features, so there was clearly some reason behind her appearance. Glancing over at his clock, he could see that it was 6:00 AM. Training was at noon today wasn't it? Clearly there was something he wasn't getting as Sarada had just pulled his window up, and stepped into his room to help coerce him a tad faster.

"Come on then! Speed up, idiot."

He was still confused; that was a problem. However, upon trying to ask why it was that she was here, Boruto's brain short-circuited; a lack of breakfast and sudden wake-up would do that to a man. So, instead of a well spoken, properly formulated sentence for a question, he ended up just making a sort of... "noise" in an inquisitive tone while blinking his eyes to get used to the light shining through his now opened window.

"W-wuh?"

Sarada sighed dramatically after realizing her attempts to get her teammate out of bed weren't working. And so, she walked up to the bed without any indication as to her intentions and summarily slapped him across the face.

"Idiot. Wake up. We have a mission."

Well, that had certainly cleared up his confusion, but at the same time had unfortunately caused him _significant _pain. Sarada hit hard! Shaking his head, Boruto pulled himself out of bed to put on proper clothing, speaking to his teammate as he did so. He was...a tad pissed off to say the least.

"Ne, OUCH! I thought you liked me!"

Sarada just chuckled at her teammate's discomfort, replying to his accusation with an almost comically dismissive tone.

"I might like you, but that doesn't mean you get to sleep in when I've been up for hours hoping we were going to get a mission."

_Up for hours? Is she a fucking vampire? Well, she is Sasuke-sensei's daughter after all..._

Boruto sighed, his face falling as he spoke in an exaggeratedly depressed tone.

"I'm seriously reconsidering this relationship..."

Sarada gave him an incredulous stare; he wasn't very convincing. That said, she could still tease him for it, and with that in mind, she did so.

"Awe, I'm sorry you don't want to wake up. We can just- wait, what are you doing?"

Sarada's eyes widened as Boruto had unceremoniously removed his sleeping shirt and begun to take off his pants, seemingly paying no regard to the fact that Sarada was even in the room. She knew that she should have said something sooner, but since he didn't seem to mind...

Okay, wait, that was definitely an ass. Sarada was quickly realizing that she needed to say something soon or else she risked see something even worse than that.

"Fuck! Boruto, don't change while I'M here!"

Pulling his pants up before turning around (thank GOD), Boruto shot Sarada a shit-eating grin before speaking in an equally teasing tone.

"Says the girl who's blushing."

Sarada would have have denied it, but it seemed pointless at this point; she was so evidently flushed that comparing her to a tomato would have been a reasonable statement. Instead, she simply crossed her arms, looked away and spoke in a mildly defeated, slightly reserved tone.

"Well it's not my fault that you're hot."

Boruto's eyes widened and he froze for a second as he straightened his new shirt over his chest. Sarada glanced back up and looked at him, clearly a tad unsure about her previous words.

_Did she just say I was hot? Woah. _

Sarada was fully prepared for him to say something stupid or rude in response to her compliment, but instead, she got a much more subdued reply.

"...I didn't know you thought I was hot."

Sarada almost snorted. Really? Had she not made it obvious by following him around for years and going on a date with him? He really was a dunce sometimes. Rolling her eyes as she spoke, Sarada's tone took on a much more sarcastic nature. To say the least, it felt very much in line with her usual self.

"Oh yes, I obviously made out with you yesterday because I find you _completely _unattractive."

Boruto blushed at the thought of remembering the events of yesterday. Yes, over the past two weeks, kissing Sarada had very quickly become quite an enjoyable pastime to say the least.

_Calm down; you can think **those** thoughts later._

Thus, instead of replying to her statement and further complicating the situation, Boruto gave a simple shrug and slipped his black jacket on before pulling himself through his window and beckoning for Sarada to follow him. That said, he did slip in a little jab at her before giving in to the evils of productivity. She had woken him up at 6:00 AM, after all.

"And I thought that I was the one who was wasting time?"

Sarada sighed as she replied.

"You're insufferable sometimes. We do have to go though."

With no quip at the ready, it was all Boruto could do to just shoot a grin in Sarada's direction before jumping off onto the nearest rooftop, his teammate following in close pursuit.

* * *

As was standard with most Genin Shinobi teams, Team 7 all quickly headed to the base of Hokage tower to meet with their Sensei that morning...although Sarada and Boruto had been there for several hours prior to their leader turning up. And, as Sarada had anticipated, they did in fact have a mission lined up. Yawning, Konohamaru, clearly still not used to having to wake up "early" for any reason despite being a Jonin for years, continued to explain the goal of their mission.

"_sigh-_Anyway, that's the gist of it; a bandit gang ransacking Junmachi and stealing food and the like from local farmers. This mission has been assigned a C-rank, so expect to be gone for a few days. Any questions?"

Sarada, inquisitive as always, was the first to raise her hand to speak. That said, the look on her face conveyed anything but excitement, a stark contrast to her outlook this morning when she thought about the prospect of a mission.

"Yes, Sarada?"

"Sensei, why is it that we're being assigned another mission dealing with bandits? Haven't we done this, what, ten times or so already? I assumed that by now we'd have finished enough C-ranks to warrant a B-rank mission sent our way."

Konohamaru clearly took a second to prepare his answer, and Boruto, observing the situation, internally groaned.

_Come on, Sarada, don't try and shaft us with a hard mission!_

Luckily, the group's leader seemed to have Boruto's best interests in mind, if unknowingly. Despite his previously relaxed manner of speaking, the serious tone of a true teacher came into play with this response; clearly Konohamaru was trying to speak with authority.

"Well Sarada, for one, the difference between missions of each rank is often exponential. Thus while C-ranks can take days, B-ranks can stretch for many weeks on end, and A-ranks have been known to last months or longer. You're all still Genin, so unless extraordinary circumstances come about, there will be no situation in which our squad will receive a B-rank mission. Is that clear?"

While her father might have objected to this, Sarada was at least a _little_ less resistant to authority, and understood the situation. Thus, with a quick nod, the notion was dismissed.

"Any other questions?"

This time, Boruto of all people spoke, choosing to skip the pleasantries of raising his hand. That said, he seemed to be itching to ask this question, whatever it was, so Konohamaru decided to not comment. Sarada, of course, paying close attention to the boy, intended to tell him off later.

"Niisan, Where is Junmachi? I haven't heard Dad or Mom mention it before so it can't be too important of a place, yeah?"

This time, Konohamaru responded with a matter-of-fact tone about his voice, clearly trying to educate the blonde ninja, while Sarada was giving the boy an incredulous look.

"Actually, Boruto, Junmachi is the Land of Fire's foremost source of food; it's two days south of Konoha. Usually, I'd scold you for not knowing that as the Hokage's son, but since that's Naruto-niisan... well, I'm not surprised."

Boruto was, of course, not particularly happy at the idea of being insulted.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Then, before Konohamaru had a chance to reply, Sarada swung a fist at Boruto's shoulder while seemingly holding little back, sending him reeling and grabbing the point of impact.

"Agh! Sarada-chan, what the hell?"

Sarada, as was par for the course at this point, rolled her eyes, then promptly turned to her sensei and bowed.

"The idiot says sorry, Sensei."

This earned a hearty laugh from Konohamaru, while Mitsuki, ever the quiet one, watched on with intrigue. Boruto, finally getting his response in, clearly sounded a bit dejected.

"Ah fuckin' fine, Niisan, I'm going to head off then. When do we leave?"

Konohamaru nearly facepalmed before answering.

"Boruto you should have asked that wh- you know what, never mind; we leave tomorrow morning, meet at 8:00 AM outside the gates."

Boruto, not wanting to spend anymore time waiting, simply nodded and leaped off in the direction of what looked like his house, although not before giving Sarada a quick glance. Sarada then shrugged before doing the same, seemingly following the ninja towards his home. Mitsuki however, finally decided to ask his Sensei a question once his other two teammates were gone.

"Sensei, isn't Sarada-san's house that way?"

The boy spoke while pointing in the direction of Sarada's home. Konohamaru, only noticing this just now, scratched his chin before giving a reply.

"...Yeah, I think it is."

Mitsuki seemed to stand still for a second before replying with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hmm. Odd."

Mitsuki then leapt off in his own direction, leaving Konohamaru alone to scratch his head and wallow in his team's... "unique" attitude, towards one another.

_I swear sometimes I think it'll be them that kills me and not the enemy._

* * *

Boruto was sure that being pressed up against a rock hidden away in the middle of a forest qualified as uncomfortable in most cases, but unsurprisingly, the presence of Sarada's lips seemed to change that. Heat radiated through his body, more so then it should have with the shade of the trees covering him and his companion. He strained to slip off his black jacket while pushing a few words out in between kisses.

"You couldn't even wait until lunch, c-could you?"

Sarada rolled her eyes, fully content with the situation and her position, practically on top of Boruto. She briefly retreated from the boy's lips to speak and let him take off his jacket.

"It's not even half past ten, idiot... and you didn't expect me to wait hours for this, did you?"

Managing to slip her classic smug tone into the last part of her sentence, Boruto found himself breathing heavily already, nervously contemplating his life choices.

_What have I got myself_ _into?_

His thoughts were, of course, quickly interrupted by his girlfriend, who decided to end the little break in contact. This continued for about ten minutes, and while a month ago Boruto would've told you that making out with a girl for that long would be boring, he found it to be quite the opposite. It was only as a result of a sudden intrusion that the two teenagers broke apart.

"Is this why you two were so odd today?"

Both Sarada and Boruto jumped apart at the sudden entrance of a familiar voice and figure. Splitting apart as quickly as they'd snapped together, both turned their heads and exclaimed in unison at the surprise visitor.

"Mitsuki?!"

Boruto's mind was back to racing, although his thoughts were much less "complex" than they had been earlier.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck._

Believe it or not, Sarada's own brain was engaging in similar behavior. Regardless, both teens began to sputter for excuses as if they'd been caught robbing a bank.

"Uh, Mitsuki- you see, it's uh..."

"Not what it looks like! Obviously! I wouldn't k-kiss that idiot, you know t-that!"

Boruto, of course responded reflexively to his girlfriend's choice of excuse, turning to face Sarada and pointing a finger in her direction.

"Liar!"

Sarada's eyes widened at the sheer idiocy of her unlikely significant other's knee-jerk response, but still ended up giving up the ghost with a reply of her own.

"Shut it Boruto, you'll give us away!"

Mitsuki, meanwhile, had just been observing with an ever-growing dull expression on his face. Did they seriously think they were fooling anybody? While he respected both of his teammates for their skill and usual intelligence, it appeared that both had something to learn about subtlety. Growing slightly tired of the scuffle beginning to break out in front of him, he interjected idly.

"You two can stop now."

Both of the arguing teens stopped and turned to face Mitsuki, both blushing at the realization that they had somehow managed to be dumb enough to actually get into a fight over awful excuses. Mitsuki, pleased at the newly born silence, began to justify his presence.

"I was simply interested as to why you two were so awkward around one another this morning. I have observed your usual animosity towards one another to seem almost autonomous in the past, but today it almost seemed force, as if you two were _trying_ to appear as if everything was normal. While I concluded that something was up, I hadn't guessed that you two were involved in what I believe is referred to as a 'romantic relationship'. Is that not what I was observing?"

Sarada was the first to reply, her blush still glued to her cheeks and her tone still stuck in that limbo between embarrassed and indignant.

"O-observing!? How long were you watching?"

Mitsuki shrugged.

"About twenty minutes minutes, although it may have been fifteen, as I did have to find you two after you left. Why did you feel the need to deceive Sensei when you left to engage in sexual behavior, Boruto-san? I doubt he would have been bothered by it."

Boruto practically dropped dead to the ground, choking on air before getting his reply out.

"Se-sexual... we weren't- ah damn I don't know?! You can't just follow people around Mitsuki!"

Sarada, although still just as embarrassed, managed to compose herself enough to finish her boyfriend's reply properly.

"W-we assumed that Sensei would take issue with potential e-emotional relationships spoiling missions."

Mitsuki nodded in response to his more intellectual teammate, although his reply told a story which differed from simple agreement.

"Perhaps, but I assure you that he would rather his team be honest with him than worry about a relationship between two adolescents. It _is_ natural after all, seeing as you are a male and a female who are regularly in close proximity to one another."

Both Boruto and Sarada were just done with the conversation at this point; they had resigned themselves to their fate, whatever it might be. Boruto finally managed to get a structured sentence out at this point, although it lacked his usual fervor, instead sounding dejected.

"Are you going to tell him?"

Mitsuki shook his head.

"I trust you two; you are my friends, and I'm sure that you will tell Sensei when you feel it is necessary."

The duo in question immediately felt a weight lift off their shoulders, composure and color besides red returning to their faces. Sarada was however, the only one of the two who replied, relaxing her usually uptight posture while doing so.

"Thank you, Mitsuki-san. I appreciate that a lot."

Her teammate offered a soft smile as he replied, hoping to comfort his apparently distressed friend.

"It isn't a problem."

The white-haired boy then turned heel, ready to leap off into the sea of trees that led back to the center of the village, but not before leaving a closing remark of his own.

"Oh, and Boruto-san; I don't think Sarada-chan's father would be too keen on the nature of this interaction if he is as intimidating as you've described him to be. Stay safe."

With that, Boruto's teammate vanished, leaving him shuddering at the mention of Sasuke-sensei. While the evidence showed otherwise, he swore that sometimes Mitsuki meant to scare him with his eerie way of saying things.

_Not that his advice was bad_ _though._

Unsure of what to do now that the flow of their previous activities had been interrupted, Boruto turned to face Sarada with a confused look on his face, scratching the back of his head.

"So what now?"

Sarada snorted at her boyfriend's clear display of awkwardness. It was, in her eyes, quite adorable, although she'd never tell him that to his face. Confidence returning to her voice as she replied, Sarada smirked as she gave Boruto an answer.

"Well, if I heard right, our little secret is safe with Mitsuki... so I don't see why we can't just get back to what we were doing."

Boruto would have been lying if he said he'd even considered disagreeing, _but_ he did propose an alternative of sorts. Moving to pick up his jacket and dusting it off as he slipped it back on, he offered his proposal.

"I'd love to say yes, but my back is killing me, ne-"

Sarada's eyes widened as she turned away, clearly disappointed.

"...Oh. Do you-"

Boruto, of course, wasn't quite finished with his reply, offering a smirk of his own as he finished his statement.

"Buuutttttt my house is empty for another few hours... so wanna race back to my bedroom?"

_Hah! Two can play the teasing game, four-eyes!_

Sarada's cheeks really couldn't catch a break. At this rate, she'd just be blushing permanently. Without turning around, she managed a response, not quite prepared to let her boyfriend see her looking this vulnerable.

"You don't have to tell me twice."

Sarada was the first to start running towards his house, and not to be outdone, Boruto quickly followed suit; the teenagers appeared to have their afternoon plans all figured out.

* * *

**A/N:** Hey! Sorry this took so long to write! Thank you all for reading, I'll try to get the next one out quicker since you all seemed to love the last chapter. Leave a review, favorite, and follow my account if you'd like to show your support, and I hope you all have wonderful days. 3


	3. Burning Fields

**A/N: **I loved writing that last chapter since it came from me kinda getting a sudden burst of inspiration to finally finish it. With that, I think I've figured out a plan for keeping my uploads consistent; I'm going to shoot for smaller chapters. On another note; this chapter is a good bit more action packed than any of the previous two, as it mostly covers the confrontation between Team 7 and the Junmachi Bandits, so please do let me know what you think of my fight-writing ability.

**IMPORTANT -** This is just a personal thing, but since I know lots of you don't read the closing notes, I'd like to ask sincerely that you leave a review after finishing this chapter and on the previous ones! It helps out a lot and I honestly love hearing your feedback. The inclusion of Konohamaru and Mitsuki in the first place is a direct result of you guys responding to this story, so I do mean it when I say you guys influence me massively!

**PS: **Kishimoto and Shueisha own Naruto as well as all of its associated characters and properties.

* * *

8:00 AM the next day had come and gone, and so Team 7 had set out on their journey. A few days had passed, and while Boruto and Sarada weren't exactly hiding their behavior (although Sarada had tried and failed to limit lip-locking during the duration of their mission), Konohamaru-niisan seemed to have not noticed. Niisan was a pretty oblivious guy, he supposed, but anyway, his sensei's lack of knowledge on his relationship wasn't the most troubling thing to Boruto at the moment. On that note...

"Die, Konoha scum! These fields belong to the Junmachi Bandits now!"

_Another one? Fuck, I already have my hands full with this jackass!_

Boruto had his tantō held in both hands locked against the katana of one bandit when he heard the warcry to his left. He grit his teeth, struggling to push back against the larger man's superior raw physical power. He grunted as he glanced to the left to try and figure out where the yelling had come from. As he'd guessed, there was in fact another bandit rushing him, this one a shorter man holding an axe.

_Bandits? Really? How the hell are they giving us this much trouble?_

Of course, individually they weren't too troubling, but there had just been so many of them. Team 7 had expected a gang of around ten at most, but it appeared that the problem in Junmachi was a tad greater than that; there had been nearly fifty men present when his team found their hideout, and it was only now, after hours of fighting, that they'd managed to get the last few out into the nearby cornfields. Thus, as much as he wanted to deal with this new problem himself, he was still wrestling with the other bandit's katana. The good news was the fact that this was indeed a mission for _Team 7_, and not just Boruto himself.

"Argh- Mitsuki, could I get some help over here?!"

The white-haired boy, who had just cut the throat of the last of his own opponents a few meters away from Boruto, glanced up towards his teammate and nodded, weaving three handseals in quick succession before thrusting his right arm forwards to complete his technique.

"Wind Release: Breakthrough!"

A blast of wind shot by Mitsuki blew straight behind Boruto's head and into the chin of the bandit charging at him, snapping the man's head back and knocking him to the ground of the cornfield rather ungracefully. This earned a harsh smile from Boruto, who now was able to turn back to face the issue of the bandit he was grappling with.

Instead of trying to overpower the man, Boruto purposely loosened his grip on his tantō and fell into a backbend, dropping the weapon but allowing the bandit's swing to simply course over him. This gave him just the opportunity that he needed. Springing back upwards, Boruto pushed himself off of the ground into a flip, soaring over the larger man's left shoulder as he molded chakra into his right hand while moving it into a swirling motion.

The man was still off balance and recovering from his sword swing; he never had a chance. As Boruto moved behind the man through the air, he twisted his body around so that he was parallel to the ground and thrusted his right hand forwards, exclaiming as he shoved the spiraling sphere of chakra into the small of the man's back.

"Rasengan!"

The result was obvious. The bandit barely had time to scream in agony as his back collapsed while he was sent flying twenty feet forwards, only to land face down in the corn, crushing a few crops beneath his now limp body. Boruto let out a deep breath and slumped forwards. The sun was hot, and he was near exhausted, but he doubted the battle was over yet. Looking up from his stupor, he offered Mitsuki a thumbs up and a half-assed grin as thanks for his help, earning a soft smile from his teammate.

_I hate to say it again, but thank god for Mitsuki._

It was then that both of them were hit by a wave of some of the most intense heat they'd ever felt, preceded by a high-pitched scream. Out of instinct, the duo knew what the source was, but that, coupled with the intensity of the heat was worrying, to say the least. Boruto sharpened his posture and glance over to Mitsuki to affirm their suspicion. They spoke in unison, confirming their immediate course of action.

"Sensei and Sarada."

* * *

Konohamaru was backed against a figurative wall. He'd expected this mission to go off without a hitch, and for the most part, it had. Despite the numbers of the bandits far outstripping what he'd thought possible, his team was strong, and he was even stronger. One by one, they'd chipped away at their numbers until they had forced the remaining five or six out of their cave hideout into the nearby cornfields. He and Sarada had then split off from Mitsuki and Boruto to deal with the scattered groups.

It was when the last of the bandits near him and Sarada fell that the situation had gotten bad. Within moments of Sarada's finishing kick to the last bandit's head, a cloaked figure had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and clapped his hands to the ground. This led to him performing some sort of jutsu to drop the ground around them in about a 30-foot radius, creating a 20-foot deep basin for the three ninja. Sarada first looked up, then glanced over at her sensei, speaking with a somewhat worried tone as she was unsure of what to make of the situation.

"Sensei, who's this?"

As much as he wanted to give the girl an answer, he couldn't at the moment. That, of course, soon changed.

The figure reached for his hood, and yanked it off of his head, tearing the whole cloak off in the process. Upon the removal of his cloak, Konohamaru instantly recognized the man's features. Tall and skinny with bright red hair, pale white skin, and a scar running from the side of his left cheek to his chin, complete with a one-sided, terrifying grin found in nearly every known photograph of him. A grimace planted itself on Konohamaru's face as a drop of sweat ran down his forehead.

"Argh- you're Riku Bakutaro, Iwagakure's Smiling Devil!"

The man in question cocked his head and replied in a shrill, high-pitched, flamboyant voice accompanied by a haunting chuckle.

"Yours truly, Sarutobi-kun!"

Sarada's eyes widened in shock, her sharingan triggering instinctively as she shuddered. Once again, she turned to face her teacher, speaking this time with just the slightest hint of fear in her voice despite her best efforts to fend off the unwanted emotion.

"S-sensei, do you mean this is the serial killer who slaughtered his whole Anbu squad before defecting from his village? What's he doing h-here?!"

Konohamaru grit his teeth as he responded, reaching for a kunai with his left hand as subtly as he could.

"I'm not sure, Sarada, but stay on guard and be ready. This is an A-ranked opponent. He's known for using a combination of Water Release, Earth Release, and Wind Release, so you'll likely have to rely on your Shuriken and Taijutsu."

_Alone I_ could_ take him, but right now, I need to focus on keeping Sarada safe._

Sarada turned to face her opponent and observed his chakra flow; it appeared completely still at the moment, which was probably a good thing. Riku did, however, begin walking towards Konohamaru in what could only be described as the most intimidating approach possible despite its apparent nonchalance.

"Sarutobi-kun, you've brought a pretty flower with you! While I'm sure she helped fight off my silly little boys, I'm afraid she might get trampled while we dance, so-"

Riku reached behind himself, only to produce an unbelievably long rapier, before finishing his sentence. At this point, Konohamaru had caught on to the man's game too late.

"-allow me to uproot her!"

With that, the man stomped his right foot into the ground, and Konohamaru glanced to his left just in time to shout one last warning to Sarada.

"Sarada! Beneath you!"

Without warning, a sharp, drilling pillar of water shot out from the ground beneath Sarada's feet, and even with Konohamaru's warning, she only had time to move her arms up to defend herself. The drill then crashed into her crossed arms, picking her up off her feet and launching her into the air and out of the basin; her only response was a scream, clearly in pain from the drill.

_Damn! She's strong, but I hope she's okay after that._

Konohamaru's first mistake was glancing up towards the top of the hole to see if his student was okay. His eyes swung back to his target, as Riku appeared to have lunged forwards, rapier aimed right for his heart. All he could manage against the man's blur-worthy speed was a sidestep to his left, which led to him taking a rather painful stab right through the right shoulder. Not one to scream, all Konohamaru let out was a grunt as he dropped his kunai and grabbed the sword, mostly blunt as it was a rapier, with his left hand. His opponent's smile, however, remained steadfast as he spoke in an ever-more condescending tone.

"A-a-ah! Sarutobi-kun, you've let your guard down, how unbecoming of y-"

Riku's little monologue was cut short by a left-legged roundhouse kick to the side of his head which sent him reeling to the right of the pit, pulling his rapier out along with him. This was followed up by a vicious flurry of left handed strikes to his gut after he landed a few feet away, and finished with yet another roundhouse kick, this time one from the right-side aimed at the right side of his ribs. Unable to move to block in time, Konohamaru's leg made contact as intended, and Riku felt his ribs crack under the pressure of the assault. This, all in all, resulted in the ninja turned bandit being launched to the complete other side of the pit, struggling to stand on his own two feet whilst clearly Konohamaru appeared to still be capable of putting up a fight.

Grunting once again at this activity, Konohamaru pressed his left hand to the hole in his shoulder while he readied his own little reply. Konohamaru spoke as briefly as he could, but he was angry; really damn angry, to the point where his killing intent was practically falling off of him in waves. So hypocrisy be damned if he had a few words to say.

"First off; talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Stop _fucking_ talking or I'll make you. Secondly; you just hurt one of my students, so I fully plan on cashing in on the 'dead-or-alive' clause on your bounty, you bastard."

There was a certain venom in his voice that Konohamaru usually didn't possess, but in this case, it was justified. With that, he moved both his hands, one slightly more sluggishly than the other, into a long string of handseals. Although a bit sloppier than usual, they would get the job done. He'd need a brief moment to mold the chakra in his belly for this move though. Riku's eyes widened at the sight of handseals, but his mouth told a story different to the surprise you'd expect.

"So you've still got a little fight left in you, eh Sarutobi? Fine!"

Riku followed up his words with six handseals strung together in rapid succession, followed by him thrusting both of his palms forwards.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

From Riku's palms erupted a large gust of wind, likely strong enough to topple a tree and approaching rapidly. Despite this, Konohamaru remained steadfast, and well...

"This? This is an A-Rank missing nin? ...What was I ever worried about?"

Konohamaru spoke quietly, but determination had washed over his voice at this point, and it showed. His eyes were those of a killer, and his compassionate side might as well have been shot and killed, at least in this brief moment. Riku, meanwhile, was gloating in what he thought to be a guaranteed victory.

"Hah! Sarutobi-kun, I hope you understand how outcla-"

He never finished his sentence, cut off by the ever-solemn last son of the Sarutobi clan. He'd finally finished molding the chakra for his technique.

"-Didn't I tell you to shut it? Secret Fire Release: Great Flame Technique."

Konohamaru spared Riku one final murderous glare before inhaling and exhaling, releasing a gargantuan stream of flames which only continued widening as it approached his enemy. Couple that with the gust of wind that Riku had so generously provided him with, and well, what would have been a great blaze had quickly turned into an inferno. Rapidly rushing to perform handseals of his own, the man spoke his last words, still leaking hubris and arrogance as he did so.

"Water Release: Groundwater!"

A wave of water erupted from the earth beneath Riku's feet, threatening to match the oncoming flames. Unfortunately for him, upon meeting the torrent of fire, his water simply evaporated, allowing the flames to maintain their rapid progression towards. His eyes widening and a look of horror finally breaking the grin on his face, Iwagakure's "Smiling Devil" couldn't even claim to have died smiling as the inferno enveloped him and exploded upwards against the walls of the pit. Heat was blasted out in waves from the top, and even thought the fire didn't so much as touch any corn, many of the stalks surrounding the pit had been singed.

When the fire finally died down, Konohamaru was left breathing heavy at the exertion of using his clan's most legendary technique, and unable to find a corpse of the man he'd just incinerated. Go figure.

_Well I suppose that's my fault then, isn't it? Nevermind, I'm too tired to worry about that..._

Moments later, he collapsed against the wall to his back, his legs no longer in the mood to keep him standing.

* * *

Boruto and Mitsuki arrived perhaps thirty seconds after the flames had died down, and the first thing that the blonde-haired ninja noticed was his girlfriend, laying crumpled on top of some flattened corn stalks, clutching her stomach. Dashing across the field and around the massive, odd hole in the ground, his response was instantaneous and about as shocked-sounding as you would have expected.

"Sarada! What happened!"

Upon reaching his teammate, he found that while both of her forearms were covered in tiny, shallow cuts, there was little blood to be found. Despite this, she appeared to be unconscious.

_Shit! Is she... no! Damn it Sarada, open your fucking eyes!_

Desperate now, tears were welling up in his eyes as he shook the girl, practically screaming.

"Sarada! Wake up, fuck!"

After remaining still for another moment, the girl in question's eyes fluttered open as if responding to the mere sound of her boyfriend's voice. Looking up at the boy's face, she managed a soft smile and of course, an ever so-slightly sarcastic remark, although she was quieter than usual.

"Oh... hey idiot, how was your fight? Oh, and nice crying, I didn't know you cared so much."

Boruto's eyes widened at Sarada's response, as something between anger, relief, and annoyance stilled its way into his brain, but despite the confusing mix of emotions his girlfriend's poor choice of joke had left him with, one thought was abundantly clear.

_I love this girl. _

And then, without skipping a beat, Boruto cradled his girlfriend's head and captured her lips in a deep, passionate kiss. Thus, it was only natural that at exactly this moment, Konohamaru managed to finish crawling his way out of the pit to greet his triumphant team. His reaction was... distinctly Konohamaru, especially in contrast to the events from a few moments earlier.

"Ah, thank god, Boruto, Sarada you're- ... you're kissing? Boruto? Sarada? Why are you kissing Sarada, Boruto? Sarada? Why are you kissing Boruto, Sarada?"

Boruto was relieved that his niisan didn't sound mad. There went that worry! Breaking the kiss off and turning to face his sensei with an immense grin spread across his face, he replied about as innocently as he could manage in this situation.

"Hah- sorry niisan, I would've told you earlier if I... if _we_ hadn't worried you'd be mad. ...Are you?"

Konohamaru just stared at the two of them for a moment, and in that moment of silence, both teenagers feared the worst. Luckily, those worries were quickly put to rest.

"Mad? Hell no! I am a bit surprised though- I didn't know you had it in you, Boruto! Good going!"

Despite being as tired as he was, Konohamaru still managed a corny thumbs-up in approval of his student's romantic success. This resulted in an embarrassed blush from the blonde and a similar color from Sarada, although Boruto was the only one of the two who said anything.

"Niisan!"

Mitsuki, who had arrived next to Boruto earlier and been observing the events unfold with a smile, was the first to break into laughter. Following a brief moment of surprise from the rest of the snake-boy's team, they too indulged in a hearty chuckle over the events of the last few minutes. It was only several moments later that Konohamaru suddenly ceased his laughter. Sarada was the first to notice, managing to sit up and look at her sensei, who had a strangely mortified look now glued to his face.

"Sensei? What's wrong?"

A chill ran up Konohamaru's spine as he began to speak what could only be described as cursed words.

"Boruto..."

Boruto looked over to his sensei and replied idly, not quite sure why he looked so terrified.

"Yeah niisan?"

A short pause came and went, after which Konohamaru finished his statement.

"D-does Sasuke-San know?"

Boruto paled instantaneously at the mention of his girlfriend's father. No, he most certainly did _not _know and Boruto wanted to keep it that way. He couldn't hide the legitimate fear in his voice as he replied to his sensei, hoping he wasn't about to expose him to his... well, other sensei.

"N-no?"

Konohamaru let out a breath large enough that it could have been stuck inside him for a year, clearly relieved.

"Thank. God. I'm not sure Naruto-Niisan would like it if his son got murdered under my watch."

Boruto frantically nodded, unable to get words out at the moment due to his mind being lost in daydreams of being brutally killed by Sasuke.

Sarada sighed, as only one thing came to mind.

_Boys, so dramatic._

Yes, they were dramatic indeed. But one of them was her boy, her _idiot_, and she liked him that way, all dramatic and stupid. Or rather, she loved him that way.

_Oh dear, I love him, don't I?_

Our favorite pair were of course, oblivious to having shared similar thoughts for at least the moment, but both of them were okay with this. Life was exciting, although dangerous, and they both planned to live it to its fullest, whether the other thought the same or not.

And so that day, the sun set upon the four teammates, who as it turned out, didn't even leave their spot in the cornfields until long after the sun had gone town. Schedule be damned, they were _alive_, and wasn't that far more important?

* * *

**A/N:** What did you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the action sequences, and I hope while brief, there was at least some emotional payoff! I very much enjoyed writing more Mitsuki and Konohamaru (especially him, actually), and him snapping in a very Asuma-like manner felt super in-character to me. Anywho, please leave a review, favorite the story, and follow my account to show your support. I really enjoy writing this fic, and I hope you guys enjoy it just as much.


	4. Under Cover Of Darkness

**A/N: **Here's a cuter one; it's fluffy, lovely, and goes back to the core of this story. By that, I mean it has Boruto and Sarada being cute as hell. That said, I've decided that this will have an actual plot outside of romance since you all responded very well to the action. Anyway, please enjoy Chapter 4.

* * *

Konohamaru stood in the ever-familiar office at the head of Hokage Tower, awaiting the arrival of the Hokage. He'd spent far too much time in here as a child, trying to garner his grandfather's attention and escaping his old teacher. At the thought of Ebisu, he let out a sigh. He had been a good sensei, but his hatred for Naruto during his formative years had been clearly misplaced, and was something that Konohamaru was glad to be distanced from nowadays. Being the Hokage's grandson had always meant he'd been surrounded by people as pretentious as Ebisu, he supposed.

As for his grandfather, well; he'd have been proud of what Naruto ended up accomplishing.

_You always liked him plenty, didn't you? He's come so far._

As if on cue, Naruto suddenly appeared in the office with a puff of smoke, looking as exhausted as always and failing to stick his landing. Konohamaru bowed respectfully and offered a greeting, although habit told him that Naruto wouldn't want that from him.

"Welcome back, Hokage-sama."

Naruto, who managed to haul himself off of the floorboards with a groan, shook his head as Konohamaru had expected. His reply was delivered in a dragging tone, clearly a symptom of his aforementioned exhaustion.

"It's Naruto, otou-chan, I tell you that every time. Urgh- anyway, how did the mission go? C-ranked, right? Your team is pretty strong, so they probably had an easy go with a few bandits."

Konohamaru scratched the back of his head, unsure how to report the oddity that was their mission. Deciding on honesty as the best policy, he spoke in as professional a manner as was possible with a man like Naruto as his Hokage.

"Well... for one, the mission needs a rank update to A-Rank."

Naruto paled and froze in place, his jaw dropping almost comically. Stuttering to get a reply out at this news, he was pretty much completely unsure how to respond, leading to what amounted to incoherent rambling.

"W-w-WHAT!? How the hell did I manage to send my son on a fucking A-Rank! He's a Genin! And S-Sakura will kill me! Shit, K-Konohamaru, you have to hide me, quick, before _she_ gets here!"

Konohamaru facepalmed. His older brother was an idiot, and complete disorganized at that.

"Hoka-... Naruto. It WAS a C-Rank, we just ran into complications that should lead to it being upgraded."

Naruto paused in the middle of his little freak out and let out a sound trapped somewhere between "huh" and "oh", before exhaling rapidly. He sounded relieved to an extent you wouldn't expect from something so minor in the grand scheme of being the head of a full-on ninja village.

"Ah. Okay then, so what happened?"

Okay, now he was making sense. Konohamaru didn't mince any words with his reply, somewhat eager to get home to his own bed, something he figured Naruto should probably consider.

"For starters, we expected maybe ten bandits; there were around fifty, potentially more. We found them in a cave hideout near Junmachi just like our intel suggested, but it was clear whoever hired us undersold their presence. That said, the bandits themselves still didn't prove to be much of an issue for our team. After we corralled them out of the cave, Sarada and I split off from Boruto and Mitsuki. Both squads were successful in eliminating the targets with an efficiency that leads me to recommend every last one of them for participation in the next Chunin Exams."

Naruto scratched his head, confused. This sounded not unlike the report he'd been expecting and certainly not a report worthy of an A-Rank assignment.

"So... what was the problem exactly?"

Konohamaru sighed. Anything concerning missing-nin was a sore spot, especially when you were talking about the squad which the Hokage's son was on.

"...The leader of the bandits was The Smiling Devil, A-Ranked Iwagakure missing-nin, something which was not even slightly apparent in the mission request. I reckon that the Junmachi villagers didn't even know though; he only appeared before Sarada and I after all of his men had fallen. Regardless, what's important is that Sarada Uchiha and I received moderate injuries in combat with him, while I managed to kill him following her... exit, from the battlefield. Unfortunately, a body could not be retrieved."

Naruto's eyes moved from Konohamaru's bandaged shoulder to his blistered fingertips, immediately knowing what had occurred. He shook his head; this would be a hellish amount of paperwork. The Hokage then moved his eyes back to the Jonin, a mild scowl resting on his face. When he spoke, it was with a flat, somewhat annoyed tone.

"You incinerated him, didn't you, ne."

Konohamaru tried his best to avoid shrugging, but did so instinctively, leading to a shooting pain in his injured shoulder.

_Damn attitude, why can't you pipe down!_

"I apologize; I _may_ have overdone things, but I was quite angry. You know as well as I do that watching a teammate get hurt is an experience that inspires less-than safe behavior. Regardless, I'll avoid doing so again."

Naruto simply nodded, sitting down at his desk and waving Konohamaru on his way as he ended the conversation.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to label him as 'presumed dead' since we don't have a body. As for the rest, I'll see what I can do about getting the rank updated."

As Konohamaru was about to leave, Naruto perked up once again, this time with a request.

"Say, I know you're still recovering, but could you go help out with the cleanup effort near the Merchant District? There was a pretty bad fire, 40 people were injured. We need help assessing the damage."

Konohamaru gave the Hokage a thumbs up with his good arm, earning a sympathetic but tired smile from the blonde. He then moved to the open window and leapt through it to go on his way home. Naruto glanced in the direction of the window prior to internally groaning. Dark clouds were gathering above Konoha.

_Couldn't the fire have just happened later today? Looks like we're getting a storm, so it wouldn't have been a damn_ _problem._

* * *

She was sitting on her bed with her knees to her chest, jamming out to some rock band Boruto had recommended to her when the rain started falling. It had been hours since then.

Rain beat against Sarada's bedroom window like rocks to concrete. Lightning flew across the sky in streaks, followed by a crash of thunder mere moments later. It was 4 PM for god's sake, why couldn't she just listen to her music in peace! She'd usually be out throwing shuriken or practicing her Fire Release, but no, she couldn't even do THAT because of this damn storm. It was bad enough having to deal with letting all the cuts on her arms heal, but did she really have to do it _alone_ in her bedroom?

_...I miss Boruto. Ne, I miss people._

It was at that precise moment that a barely audible knock on Sarada's door interrupted her train of thought. Snapping up, she was practically thirsting for the social interaction, no matter who it was. She paused her music and spoke loudly enough to be heard over the roar of the outdoors without screaming, which was harder than you'd think.

"Come in?"

The door creaked open, revealing her mother; a welcome sight, to be sure.

"Mama! You're back from work."

Sarada had been hoping for her mother's return for hours, but she hadn't expected her to be home this early. Maybe this meant they could sit down and watch a movie or something; that would be sure to take her mind off of this damn storm. Yet, despite her best hopes, Sakura seemed to have a sad smile on her face. What was wrong?

"Hey Sarada. Are you feeling okay? Your arms healing alright?"

Sarada bounced at the opportunity to talk to somebody, especially if it gave her an excuse to complain about her damned arm wounds.

"I'm doing okay mama. The cuts still sting a bit, but I think they're healing fine. I've been feeling a bit cooped up though, and the storm isn't helping. Now that you're home though, I think I'll be fine."

Sakura's smile held steadfast until it was broken by a sigh clearly motivated by disappointment.

_Why does mama seem so sad?_

Sarada's confusion was cleared up, perhaps unfortunately, by her mother's response.

"I hate to say it sweetie, but I only came home to check in and let you know I'd be at the hospital overnight tonight. I have to oversee a lot of surgeries on burn victims; there was a fire in the Merchant District and 40 people got hurt. I promise that tomorrow I'll cook a big family dinner though, okay? Sasuke will be home tomorrow, so it'll be nice."

Sarada's reaction was immediate. She burrowed her face into her knees and gave a muffled reply with a somber tone. Nothing was going her way today, was it?

"Ah. Okay mama. Love you."

Sakura frowned before deciding against risking making things worse with some words of consolation. In her years as a parent, hell, in her years as a teenager, she'd discovered that kids often needed to work things out internally before anybody else could help. So, she settled for a simple response before closing the door.

"Alright. Love you, Sarada. Have a good night."

Sarada at least had enough composure to wait until she heard the door to her house close before letting the first tear fall. She hated crying, although she hated a lot of things at the moment.

_This is so STUPID! Why am I crying over a night alone! I've done it before, hell, I do it every other week! And it's not my fault p-papa is never home when I need him to be. I'm better than this..._

She was determined to deal with this alone; her ego wouldn't settle for anything less. So, for the next few hours, Sarada curled up and lost herself in daydreams of being Hokage among other things, all soundtracked to whatever CD it was Boruto gave to her. At one point, probably around the third time the album had replayed because she simply couldn't be bothered to change it, she glanced at the LCD screen on her CD player. The song she was listening to was "Under Cover of Darkness", whatever that meant.

_Y'know, this is smarter music than I thought my idiot would listen to. I'd put money on Shikadai having gotten him hooked on this._

There she went again, letting Boruto slip into her thoughts again. She was _better _than that. She didn't need anybody to help her get through a night alone. That was absurd! Glancing at her watch, Sarada read the time hoping it would provide some sort of distraction from her inner monologue. Unfortunately, all she found was a number lacking in anything that could provoke an existential crisis, something she was frankly hoping for at this point.

_7:00 PM. _

She lasted only another minute before she reached for her phone, deciding her ego could go fuck itself. Sarada would wait a minute to call though; she had somewhere to go first.

* * *

He'd hung up on his little video-chat session as soon as he heard the call.

"I hit level 80! Fuck yeah! Shikadai, what level are- ah shit, I gotta get this."

Boruto's little gaming session was interrupted by a high-pitched ring which somehow managed to bleed through a litany of other sounds. Interested, he reached over to his bed and flipped open his phone to see who was calling.

_Sarada. Thought so._

Accepting the call, he didn't even get to ask why she was calling before she got to the point of the call with her own greeting, or lack thereof.

"C-can I c-come over?"

"Yeah, sure. Why are you stuttering?"

"I-it's cold as h-hell out h-here."

Outside?! Why the fuck was she outside! There was a storm going on, for fuck's sake.

"What! Why? Get over here quick then! How long will you be?"

Instead of getting a response over the phone, Boruto was replied to by a knock on his window behind him. Spinning his desk chair around to face the window, he jumped out of his seat when he saw Sarada sitting there in a drenched red tank-top and black sweatpants. Within a second he was unlocking the window to let her inside.

As soon as he had the damned thing closed behind her, Sarada tackled the blonde to the floor in a tight, damp hug.

_Is she..._ _crying?_

Boruto could only embrace his girlfriend as he tried to figure out why she was sobbing on top of him.

"Sarada? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Between sniffles, Sarada managed to choke out a response.

"...S-storm. Home alone, stressed, sad papa wasn't home... missed you. S-so it's a lot of things."

Boruto did his best to comfort her, holding her tight while he rubbed circles into her back. This was a side of Sarada he'd not seen many times before; she was usually a bit more stubborn about her emotions than this. It was both refreshing and saddening, to be honest.

_I hate seeing her like this_.

"Hey... well you don't have to miss me anymore, I'm right here."

Sarada's only reply was holding him tighter. Despite the fact everything she was wearing was soaking wet, Boruto couldn't find it in himself to get annoyed. That was love, he supposed.

It was only after ten or so minutes on the ground that either one of them spoke. The first to break the figurative silence (because god knows it wasn't quiet with the storm raging on outside) was Sarada.

"I'm sorry. I got you all wet."

Boruto stifled a light laugh, earning him a hit on the shoulder.

"Hey! Why're you laughing."

It took a moment for Boruto's laughter to die down. Then he began to slip out from underneath Sarada, pulling her up to her feet along with him. Only, once he was looking her in the eyes did he actually reply to her. He spoke softly. In fact, he spoke so softly that if his lips hadn't been inches away from Sarada, she probably wouldn't have heard him through the rain.

"Nothing. It's just that I've known you for my whole life and you still manage to surprise me. You're pretty amazing that way, ya' know?"

Sarada blushed but avoided looking away, finding herself just as entranced by Boruto's piercing blue eyes as he seemed to be by hers. She couldn't just let him get away with all of these compliments unanswered.

_He's such a damn romantic._

"...You're sweet."

Then, without warning, Sarada turned away and began to take off her shirt. Boruto's jaw dropped; that was... unexpected. She already had it half off when he managed to get a word out, although it came across more as sputtering than speech.

"S-Sarada, why're you taking your shirt off?"

She turned her head around to face Boruto ever-so briefly, as if only to deliver the most obvious of statements.

"What, do you expect me to sleep in a soaked shirt and pants? Fire release only does so much, Boruto."

With that out of the way, she finished slipping off her shirt, revealing a simple black bra. Boruto, at this point, was struggling to function. A girl was stripping, _willingly, _in his bedroom and talking about staying the night.

_Am I dreaming?_

By the time Boruto got himself out of his own head, Sarada was already out of her pants as well, exposing a matching black pair of underwear. Then, without skipping a beat, she dropped both articles of clothing on the floor of his room and walked over to his bed. Turning to face him with an expectant look on her face, she broke through the shock-induced haze in her boyfriend's brain with a question.

"Well? Are you going to keep me warm, or am I going to be sleeping alone after all?"

A few thoughts were running through Boruto's mind at the moment, but none of them seemed important enough to distract him from the beautiful girl in front of him. So, he did the only thing that seemed natural in this situation. Shrugging off his soaked jacket and shorts, leaving him in light blue boxers and a white t-shirt, he walked up behind Sarada and whispered his reply in her ear.

"Alone? Not a chance."

Sarada didn't need any more convincing. Slipping under the thick covers of Boruto's bed felt second nature to her, even if she'd never done it before. Within moments, he tucked himself in behind her, wrapping his arms around her, although not without a brief moment of hesitation.

"Can I...?"

It was Sarada's turn for a brief laugh, although she recovered much quicker than her boyfriend had.

"Of course, idiot. You're a good cuddler; I've told you that before, I think."

_She hasn't, but it's nice to know that she thinks things like that about me_.

It was only 8:00 PM, but the duo fell asleep in just a few minutes, fully content with where they were in the world at the moment, and not particularly happy that this little moment of perfection would have to end in the morning.

* * *

**A/N: **Heyo! Hope you all didn't mind the little meta-reference to the Strokes song "Under Cover Of Darkness". Since music is pretty much the first things humans invented, I like to think it would've eventually taken a similar direction in the world of Naruto. Anywho, please leave a review, a favorite, and follow the story if you want updates on it. I've tried to discipline myself a bit more with my upload speed as you can see, and I hope to keep this up. As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I'll see you next time.


	5. The One Where Sasuke Finds Out

**A/N: **Yay! Five chapters, 1.3k views, nearly 20k words, and 20+ reviews! You guys are such great readers. As a celebration, I've got a special treat for you all with this chapter. Also! Please remember to review this chapter and favorite this story! Seriously, it helps out so much. With that out of the way, let the show begin!

**PS: **I don't own anything.

* * *

Hinata Uzumaki was used to her son's antics. He _was_ his father's son in every way, no matter how much he wanted to deny it. Thus, there was very little that surprised her. Despite this, after coming home towards the tail end of today's horrid storm and knocking on Boruto's door, she managed to encounter something that _did_ surprise her, if only slightly.

_Oh dear. Is that Sarada?_

After not receiving a response following her knock on his door, Hinata had decided to just peak in to make sure that her son wasn't up to anything. It was only 10:30 PM, and silence, in her household, had always been deserving of suspicion. What she was greeted with was the image of her son under the covers of his bed with his teammate's back pressed against his chest. Not only that, but it appeared that Sarada was wearing rather minimal clothing.

For a moment, Hinata considered intervening.

That moment passed rather quickly, and replaced itself with a soft smile. Her son appeared to be wearing at least a shirt, regardless. Either way, they weren't doing anything wrong; although she wondered how he'd managed to convince Sasuke of that. She had presumed that her son had been up to something with Sarada for a while now, but her belief that he was as wildly incompetent with girls as his father had been had seemingly dispelled that notion.

_I suppose my mother's intuition is better than I gave it credit for. They're cute together._

At that thought, Hinata closed the door, making sure to do so quietly, leaving the two teenagers undisturbed. She was exhausted, and for once, her husband was going to be home for the night. There were more _pressing_ things to worry about.

_Maybe I'll have Sakura and Sasuke over for breakfast tomorrow. Yes, that sounds wonderful._

* * *

Sarada, who had been the first of the two young would-be lovers, was the first to wake up. Wincing, she turned away from the window to press her face into her boyfriend's chest, squeezing him like a stuffed animal in the process. Sunlight was sneaking through the blinds she had pushed aside oh-so-many times when she was over waking Boruto up for missions and the like. Of course, unlike those times, she was trying to _keep_ her boyfriend in bed, and for that matter, keep herself in bed.

_Mmmm. So warm. I could get used to waking up to this~_

After about ten more minutes snuggling up to her favorite blonde, Sarada heard the first rumblings of life begin to stir in Boruto. A grunt, a readjustment of his neck on his pillow; simple things, but signs, nonetheless. It was funny, really. As a ninja, she'd been trained to notice all of these little things about a person's behavior, but until her damned _boyfriend_ was waking up, she'd never really put them into practice. Oh well, she was only a Genin. There was plenty of time to stress over her self-labeled 'inadequate' ninja skills.

"urgh- S-sarada?"

And there were the first words of the morning. Glancing up from her position underneath Boruto's chin, Sarada offered a soft smile before giving a reply with an unusually relaxed tone by her standards.

"Good morning, idiot. How'd you sleep?"

Boruto stifled a brief chuckle before responding.

"Shouldn't I be asking _you_ that, four-eyes? After all, you're the one who was so damn eager to get into bed with me."

Sarada did her best to hold off a blush; he wasn't wrong. The worst punishment she could offer was an angry poke at the boy's cheek.

"Meanie...I slept really well. You make such a good pillow that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to work up the resolve to leave."

Boruto half-paled. His reply wasn't all too serious, but his tone betrayed an underlying nervousness that showed the blonde wasn't as fearless as he wished he was.

"Hah. Thanks, but I don't think I'd be able to explain that sleeping arrangement to _my_ dad, much less yours. Speaking of wh-"

At the mention of her father, Sarada pressed a finger to Boruto's lips to put an end to that line of conversation. That was _stressful_, and there would be plenty more time for _stressful_ things later. As for now, she wanted to have some fun with her boyfriend. The first part of that process was to slip into that playfully evil tone of hers that she liked to use when she was teasing him. That always bode well for her, fun-wise, and she was feeling confident this morning.

"Y'know, for bringing up something so dull, you're awfully _excited._"

Boruto's face, which had just been pale, became bright red in an instant. Internally, he wasn't doing much better.

_Oh fuck me, she noticed it?! Of course she did, you idiot, she's like an inch away from you._

"U-uh... I can explain? Okay so I can't explain but I can apologize, although for the record, you being p-pressed up against me with nothing on isn't exactly helping my case..."

See? Fun. Sarada continued her little assault on her poor boyfriend's sanity, pushing herself a little closer to him. If there had been any distance between the two teenagers before, it was officially gone.

"Oh? So you don't like having me this close? Or are you just trying to act 'modest'?"

The Uchiha heiress walked her left hand up her boyfriend's shirt as she finished the sentence, flustering Boruto even more to the point where he was clearly sputtering for words.

"I-... t-the second one."

Sarada smiled before easing off a little bit, dropping the tone.

"Good. Now, if you don't stop looking cute and get out of bed right now, I can't promise you that I'll ever let you leave."

Boruto let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding before shrugging and reluctantly slipping out of his bed, leaving Sarada to watch him go about his ablutions. As he got to his dresser to pull out some clothes, he glanced back at the girl in his bed, then down to the floor, where her soaked clothes from last night still lay. He reached down to pick them up, but quickly realized that while Sarada's pants had dried fine, her top had not.

So, he did what any good boyfriend would do. He opened his closet, found a grey hoodie that he'd probably not worn since winter, and softly tossed it over to the bed.

"Your shirt is still drenched, and I think you wearing an oversized hoodie is a bit less of dead giveaway that you've been out than a top that looks like it's been dunked in a bathtub, ne."

Sarada gave her idiot a quiet stare, daydreaming for all of a second.

_I wonder if he even knows how lovely he is._

She doubted it. Thus, it was up to her to let him know, a job that she was looking forward to. The first step on that journey was to snatch up that sweatshirt. She could care less if she was supposed to be a stone-cold kunoichi, sweatshirts were lovely and nobody could convince her otherwise. The second step was to, of course, thank the person who'd given it to her.

"Awe, thanks, idiot."

Boruto shot her a grin that left Sarada melting before picking up her pants and leaving them on the bed. At this point, he'd managed to slip on jeans and a new t-shirt, so any more potential embarrassing moments could be prevented. It was as he was readying to leave the room to go brush his teeth that he had an idea.

"Do you want to eat breakfast with us? It's Saturday and mom probably wouldn't mind."

Sarada's eyes widened. That, she hadn't been expecting. She had thought she would be leaving through the window this morning much like she had come in, but, she figured breakfast could be nice. Thus, there was only one answer dancing on the Uchiha's tongue.

"I'd love to."

Boruto scratched his head with a goofy smile on his face.

"Great. Now I just need to figure out how to explain you being here to mom."

* * *

That problem was solved as soon as the duo made their way down the stairs.

"Oh! Good morning Boruto, Sarada. How'd you two sleep?"

_Or I guess not? How the hell did she know?_

Sarada's eyes widened at the revelation that her boyfriend's MOTHER of all people had known that they'd slept together... or rather, slept in the same bed. Despite that, Hinata didn't seem bothered in the slightest. That was a good sign. Of course, she didn't have the worst of it.

Boruto was Hinata's son after all, and having your supposedly secret romance discovered by your mother wasn't the least embarrassing of experiences. Thus, the bright red blush that was stapled to his face wasn't in the least surprising to anybody present.

"Onii-chan! You didn't tell me you and Sara-chan were having a sleepover!"

Well, except Himawari. Her little interjection from her spot at the dining table broke the mildly awkward air about the situation. Little did Hinata, Boruto, or Sarada know, that would be the last bit of peace afforded to any of them this morning. Before Boruto could muster an answer to his mother's original question, a knock on the door down the hallway made its way into the conversation. He gave his mother a suspicious look before asking her a question.

"Mom, are we expecting anybody?"

As Hinata made her way down the hallway to open the door, she replied with that soft, cheerful tone which had defined her voice throughout her adult life.

"Oh, yes. I invited Sakura-chan and Sasuke-san over for breakfast. I assumed they'd want to see their daughter together since it's only so often Sasuke is in town! Your father should be making an entrance at some point soon as well; he left earlier this morning but said he'd be back in time for a late breakfast."

Sarada and Boruto's heads rapidly spun to face one another as they exchanged looks of shock. Despite this, neither was able to take any action before the door was opened, revealing the youngest Uchiha's parents.

"Thank you for coming! Sarada and Boruto are just in the dining room."

Although he couldn't yet see his sensei's face, Boruto paled when he heard those first piercing words come out of Sasuke's mouth.

"Sarada's here? Sakura, didn't she leave a note saying she was staying the night at Chocho's?"

Sarada cursed luck under her breath while Boruto dealt with less than savory thoughts.

_It's official. I'm_ _going to die._

Sakura, of course, replied to her husband as honestly as she could.

"That's what the note said, yes. I don't know why she'd lie though. When did Sarada get here Hinata?"

Boruto clenched his teeth and tensed his legs, ready to run away at a moment's notice. He knew what was about to happen as soon as his mother began to speak again.

_Here it comes_.

"Oh? Sarada stayed the night with Boruto. I assumed you'd known."

Sasuke was the only one to respond, and unfortunately for the two teenagers, it wasn't a response that betrayed any anger or emotion. It was deadpan; blunt.

"Ah."

Then... nothing. For a few seconds, all that Boruto or Sarada could hear was just that; absolutely nothing. There was no sound to be heard, not from Sasuke, not from Sakura, not from Hinata. The blonde broke the silence by turning back to his girlfriend and sighing.

"Wow! I guess your dad isn't mad after all, Sarada."

Sarada gave him a confused, albeit sympathetic look before making a remark of her own.

"I-I guess so? Something about this doesn't feel ri- what the hell is that?"

As Sarada appeared to have noticed, the silence from down the hall had been broken by a crackling noise. It took Boruto approximately a second to figure out what that noise was, exactly.

_Is that chirping? Why the fuck is there a bir- WAIT SHIT!_

He barely managed to duck as Sasuke flew over him in a black blur, a gargantuan Chidori lit in his right hand which quickly found itself lodged through the back wall of the dining room.

"BOOOORUTTTOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Okay, so maybe he _was_ mad.

Himawari let out a brief scream at the sight of her would-be uncle crashing into their dining room, while Sarada simply leapt out of the way. Boruto suspected that she wasn't particularly happy at this turn of events, but regardless, she was the least (or the biggest, depending on your point of view) of his worries at the moment. Soon after Sasuke yanked his hand out of the wall, he shot a sharp glare in the blonde's direction, as if eyeing him like a piece of game, soon to be gutted.

_He really IS going to kill me, isn't he?_

Despite the grim outlook of the situation, Boruto had forgotten about one thing. That was, of course, the pair of mothers who had just arrived in the dining room in chase of the dark-haired Uchiha patriarch. Then, before Sasuke could make another attempt on the poor blonde's life, the pink haired member of the aforementioned pair proceeded to dash up to him and smack him across the back of his head.

"Sasuke! You will NOT ruin our breakfast!"

Sakura then turned to face Sarada with a practically instantaneous switch to a softer face, and spoke in a much more motherly tone.

"Hi honey! I'm sorry Papa is making a scene. We'll talk over breakfast, _okay?_"

In that last bit of the sentence, there might as well have been an arrow being drawn by Sakura's voice and pointed at Sasuke as if it was a threat. Sarada blinked, clearly surprised at this rather..."unique" chain of events.

Then, as if needing to remind the room that he existed, Sasuke finally responded to his rather annoyed wife's plea for peace.

"Hn. Fine. I will give them a _chance_ to explain."

With that, Sasuke finally relaxed his hand and let the Chidori disperse. His sensei's words had been less venomous than Boruto had expected, but still, there had been venom nonetheless. Regardless, as the air exited his lungs, he found a weight had lifted off his shoulders, at least for now.

_Death and the accompanying breakup averted! Hell yeah!_

Sasuke sighed and sat down at one of the chairs at the dining table, before glancing over at the wide-eyed, clearly frightened Himawari.

"...Sorry about that."

Himawari jolted as if being brought back to reality before offering an acceptance of her uncle's apology.

"N-ne, it's okay Sasuke-oji-san. "

Surprising even Sakura, Sasuke offered a soft smile and nod of the head to the youngest Uzumaki. At his core he was very much a kind person, but even his family knew him to have a usually stern exterior.

At this point, at least some sort of levity took hold within the room. Hinata smiled; her daughter had always had a way of brightening the faces of the people she talked to.

As for Sarada? She was just scratching her head. Part of her was glad her boyfriend wasn't dead, obviously, but a large portion of her brain was currently dedicated to wondering how it was her parents managed to function when one of them was clearly so different from the other.

_Adults are weird._

She wasn't wrong.

* * *

"So you're telling me that you _didn't_ do anything with my daughter last night?"

Boruto's hands were flailing as if he was drowning while trying to come up with a response to his dark-haired sensei.

"N-no, Sasuke-sensei! S-Sarada-chan just stayed the night since she didn't want to be home alone all night."

While Sakura seemed to take this at face value, Sasuke had a blunt look on his face, and was very clearly eyeing the blond with dangerous intrigue. Furthermore, he had his sharingan active; if the boy he was _interrogating_ lied to him, he'd know.

"And you thought it would be appropriate for her to stay in your bed as opposed to say, the couch?"

The first thing that came out of Boruto's mouth was a sort of garbled choking noise, as if he was struggling to speak proper words. After all, how was he supposed to act in a situation like this? What made it worse was that Sarada appeared to be sitting silently, observing him from her place at the table. She hadn't said a word throughout the whole questioning session thus far, and it was weirding him out.

_Why won't she back me up? Did I say something wrong?_

The good news was, Boruto wasn't quite the dunce his father had been at his age, so it took him only a moment of proper thought to figure out just why his girlfriend was not helping him defend himself.

_She wants me to fight for her! Ne- of course, if I can't do that, how can I even THINK that I love her?!_

So, with a steeled resolve, Boruto stopped flailing about, looked his teacher in the eye, and managed to reply with a determined, if still slightly scared tone.

"O-of course! She's my girlfriend, ya' know? Honestly, we didn't do anything wrong! You know I'm not lying, sensei."

Sasuke's eyes widened with mild surprise, and Sarada's gaze softened. She'd hoped her idiot's confidence would boil up; it would have been awfully disappointing for her otherwise. Regardless, he clearly cared, which was important.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was coming to a similar conclusion. There didn't appear to have been any debauchery beyond what he'd have permitted going on the night prior, and Sakura and Hinata had been repeatedly assuring him that there wasn't a problem.

_That's not what worries me though._

Sarada was his daughter, and if the dobe's son, or rather, his student, had feelings for her, it was important that he be strong willed. Sasuke wasn't quite the overprotective parent everybody else in the room thought him to be, despite his earliest reaction. Deep down, he was very much a logical person, even when it came to matter of emotion like the one at hand.

The main issue he had came from the two teenagers in question being a pair of ninja on the same Genin squad. They would be expected to risk their lives for not only one another, but their other teammates, future and present. That kind of commitment was beyond rare among relationships between people as young as Boruto and Sarada, and it was actively **_required_** from them due to their status as ninja. And so he was forced to make a decision.

_I doubt I could separate them, since they're on the same team. Never mind the fact my wife would never let me into our house again and my daughter would forsake my name to the grave._

That certainly wasn't an option.

_They're good kids. Boruto's headstrong, but determined. And Sarada... well, she's as tenacious as I was at that age._

It was with that that Sasuke came to his conclusion.

_I'll have to make sure they're both strong. Damn strong._

After the near-minute long hush the table had been left in during Sasuke's evident pondering of the situation, the Uchiha in question finally broke the silence with what seemed like an answer.

"Right. Well, I won't interfere with whatever it is you two have going on. Partially because Sakura would skin me if I said otherwise-"

Sakura gave a knowing, if blunt shrug.

"-and partially because you two appear to at least be somewhat aware of the risks which come with a relationship between ninja."

Not quite yet willing to break into bursts of cheer yet because they knew there were more words to come, Sarada and Boruto nodded to affirm Sasuke's statement.

"What will be happening is my resignation from my position as Spymaster, effective immediately. My position as a teacher and father need to come first, because you two need to be strong enough to act as you should if and when the time comes that one of you is forced to make a difficult choice surrounding the other."

Save for Himawari and Hinata, who's eyes simply widened, everybody else at the table gaped and sweat-dropped as if they were characters in a cartoon. Sakura was the first to respond, defaulting upon a tone of gleeful, but immense, shock.

"You're doing WHAT!?"

Sasuke's eyes moved to his wife before replying stalwartly.

"I'm not here enough to make sure the two of them are strong enough to protect one another, and I'll be damned if I'm the reason that either of them make an idiotic decision on a mission because they've been kissing like schoolchildren. That... and I'll admit, I've made mistakes when it comes to my family.

His eyes then shifted to his now wide-eyed, awestruck daughter.

"You deserve to have your father around, Sarada."

Another silence, although intensely brief, cast itself upon the table, before being broken by Sarada literally dashing around the table to embrace her father. She'd be damned if it hurt her still-recovering arms. It took Sasuke a moment to adjust to the hug, but he too wrapped his arms around his daughter. Sakura, of course, was smiling about as honestly as she could from her place next to her husband.

"T-thank you papa! Thank you _so _much."

Boruto had a grin plastered to his face as he watched this display of affection unfold. His gaze drifted to Sarada's face, ever-so-slightly tearful but as joyous as he'd ever seen it.

_She's so damn happy. I wish I could see her like that every day__._

Even Himawari was joining in on the celebration, happily clapping her hands while exclaiming her brother's praises.

"Yay! Boruto-nii-chan still has a girlfriend!"

Hinata ruffled her daughter's hair softly in response to this little outburst, and despite his mild embarrassment, Boruto still offered a smile.

That moment faded eventually, but still; it was a sight Boruto had etched into his mind. Upon the conclusion of this show of love, Boruto chose to speak up for the first time in a good while.

"Thank you, Sasuke-sensei. I won't let you down, and that's a promise!"

Sasuke nodded curtly, having expected no less from his student. That said, his reply was a good bit more serious than the blonde had anticipated.

"I'd hope so. Tomorrow, you're meeting me at the training grounds and I'm going to teach you a technique I think you need to know. Come to think of it, if you succeed in learning it, you'll be the first person without a Sharingan to ever successfully do so. You come too, Sarada. I won't be teaching you the same technique for now at least, but I have more than a few Fire Release jutsus you could do with learning."

Sarada offered her father a beaming grin at thought of learning directly from him while Boruto's eyes widened with excitement. He had a decent guess what the technique his sensei was referring to was. Hell, even Hinata was surprised to hear Sasuke mention the technique in question, quite sure he was talking about the Chidori. Then, from the hallway which led to the door of the Uzumaki household, another voice made its way into the conversation.

"Teme, I didn't think you had it in you! Teaching my boy _that_ move?"

Sasuke and the rest of the table glanced up to see the source of the voice, which was, unsurprisingly, Naruto. Himawari jumped out of her seat and ran to give her father a hug, while the oldest Uchiha offered an ever-so slightly condescending reply.

"Why so scared dobe? Worried he'll pass you up?"

Naruto twitched a little at the old nickname, but decided against starting a full blown argument with his former teammate. Surely enough, that wouldn't be the least jarring thing he'd be hearing this morning.

"Oh, and dobe; find a new spymaster. I quit."

Naruto's eyes widened briefly before he let out a great sigh of discontent, scratching his head.

"Ah damn, alright. About time you started spending more time around here."

It was then that Naruto noticed the arm-shaped hole in his wall behind the dining table.

"Eh...Teme, I think you're going to need to catch me up on why there's a hole in my house."

Sakura, Hinata, and even the two teenagers let out a laugh at this remark. That was the understatement of the _century_.

* * *

It was well after noon when the Uchiha family finally departed, but just before Sasuke left the house to follow his wife and daughter, Boruto cornered him at the door.

"Sensei... thank you."

Sasuke's gaze remained steady as he turned away and offered a simple reply.

"It's no problem; you and Sarada need the extra training."

Boruto shook his head rapidly, earning a glance backwards from Sasuke with raised eyebrows.

"Not that, sensei. Thank you for deciding to stay. I don't think I've ever seen Sarada-chan that happy. That's what I wanted to thank you for."

Sasuke stared at the boy for a brief moment before again turning his head and reaching for the doorknob. This time though, he paused of his own accord to give a reply.

"Take care of my daughter, Boruto. She's just as lucky as you are."

Boruto looked stunned for a brief moment, before responding with a quick affirmation and a grin.

"Of course!"

With that, Sasuke left through the door and closed it behind him, and although Boruto would never know it, he'd left the house with a big, genuine smile plastered to his face.

Sakura, noticing this, turned around and called out to her husband.

"Sasuke? Why the great big smile?"

Maintaining the beam, he replied briskly and bluntly, although his tone remained soft.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry this one took so long! I wanted it to be as perfect as possible, seeing as it contains one of the most built up to plot-points in the story so far! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this extra-long chapter! If you did, please leave a review and favorite/follow the story to be notified of updates! Coming up next is some big-time plot development for the actual story of the series, and perhaps more importantly, Shikadai's introduction to the series!


	6. Smile Like You Mean It

**A/N: **This story is like the world's biggest meme at this point. I update it like three times a year lmao. Despite this, I'd like to refer you all to my excuse for my absence; that being, _House of Glass_ by UrBoiPedro12. I'm sure most of you have read it at this point, but I'm very proud of my friend's accomplishment, and if you haven't given it a look for some reason, I implore you to do so immediately. Anyway, without further ado, here's Teenagers, Chapter 6. I hope you all enjoy the plot picking up.

* * *

Riku Bakutaro was a patient man. Konohagakure, or rather, all of the Great Shinobi Villages, would have said he _had been_ a patient man, of course, since Riku Bakutaro was dead. Legally speaking. Yet, here he stood, alone in a secluded, log-built house deep in the wooded foothills spread out between Fire Country and Rice Country. Stepping out of the shower, the Smiling Devil shook his head like a dog after a bath, spraying water all over the fogged-up mirror above his sink. He then glanced upwards, looking the light-borne imitation of himself in the eye for a brief moment before grabbing a towel to properly dry off.

Besides being a patient man, Riku was also a man who enjoyed getting what he wanted. So, when his attempts to control the main source of produce for much of Fire Country, and thus, a hilariously large sum of money, had gone awry due to the interruptions of one Konohamaru Sarutobi, he had been rather unhappy. Infuriated, even. The bandits he'd spent months gathering had been cut down by the Konoha Jonin's brats, and upon fighting the man one on one, the former Iwa ninja had been defeated in spectacular fashion.

At this thought, Riku cracked his trademark grin, although nobody was in the bathroom with him to see it.

There was, alas, a benefit to such a spectacular defeat at the hands of a reputable shinobi; despite the fact that his body had been supposedly obliterated, it was easy enough to believe that the Smiling Devil had been killed. After all, the great Sarutobi clan were _famed_ for their Fire Release techniques. Would it not have been a less credible claim of death if the Sarutobi who'd put him down _hadn't_ incinerated him?

Yes, for such a setback, things really weren't all too bad for Riku. Yet, here he stood, red hair damp and fallen to the sides of his face in a mop, with no man to call his servant, no bandits to call his enforcers, and no money to live out his shamelessly greedy dreams. Instead, he had a log cabin, two sets of clothing, and a reputation so totally destroyed that if he told a potential customer his name, they'd probably not believe him.

So, like any man in his position would, Riku had spent the weeks since his supposed "death" plotting to recover all of that which he had once lost. It would be easy enough, but first...first he needed to make a statement. It had to be something grand, something flashy. Something fitting of an epithet like the "Smiling Devil", a murder of the highest profile. And of course, what was higher profile then coming back from the dead to haunt those who had robbed you of the life you had once led?

For such a patient man, Riku Bakutaro was ready to make his triumphant return, and he intended to do so as quickly as he could. He was tired of waiting on the world to fear his name, and if they wouldn't come by that fear themselves, he'd have to force it down their throats.

So yes, despite his circumstances, Riku was far from the life without a purpose that some Missing-Nin led. He refused to let his name vanish in the flames of an opponent so unworthy. Gritting his teeth as his grin broke, the redhead spared a glance at his rapier which lay aside his bed, and thought for a moment.

_You should have let me smother your flames quickly, Sarutobi, because now, I intend to douse you with such fervor that the spark you call your life will cease to be even a memory._

To say the least, Riku had a long week ahead of him.

* * *

"So if I want to catch it, all I have to do is push that car near the ship?"

Shikadai, eyes unmoving from his handheld gaming device, kicked back in his desk chair, clearly too concentrated on whatever it was he was doing to pay attention to his friend over the video call they were on. The blonde on the other end immediately noticed this and thus asked his question again, this time with a little bit more characteristic fervor.

"Dammit Shikadai, can you look up for a second to answer my question?!"

The black-haired boy simply nodded into the camera, offering a basic affirmation alongside it, although he still didn't raise his face.

"Yep. That's what the magazine said."

Boruto, on the other end of the video call, sighed and rolled his shoulders back in his chair at the sight of his friend's lack of interest in their conversation. Sometimes, he did really wonder whether Shikadai realized that he wasn't the only human on the planet with a working brain. Better yet, how was it exactly that the blonde had ended up friends with such an unfriendly guy?

_The day I answer that question is the day I can outsmart old man_ _Nara._

Alas, the mystery remained. Thus, resigned to the fact that his friend had decided that whatever game he was playing was more important than talking to him, Boruto fetched his own console, prepared to test out the vague advice Shikadai had given him. At this point, the call between the two boys had been going on uninterrupted for about forty-five minutes, but, as with the last time they'd video-called, it was only a short time later that one of the duo was interrupted. In particular, this time, it was Shikadai who had another person looking for him; there was a knock at the boy's door.

Finally glancing up from his device, Shikadai spoke with a lazy but present intrigue, eyeing the door like it was some suspicious stranger.

"Who is it?"

This earned Boruto's attention too, as Shikadai, unless answering to his mother, was generally speaking a very quiet boy who only spoke when he felt it was necessary. That said, the answer Shikadai received was far less surprising.

"It's Inojin; are you gonna tell me I can come in, or do I have to come in through the window?"

The memory of people entering through windows immediately made Boruto red, but regardless, Inojin was a fixture of the Nara household. Not only did he share a team with Shikadai, but as far as he knew, he was the boy's closest friend, bar none, including Boruto himself. Thus, immediately, the blonde knew the conversation with his friend would soon be coming to an end, the presence of the Yamanaka boy on Shikadai's teenage priority list having bumped the Uzumaki from the number one spot. So, speaking up over the call, Boruto gracefully decided to take his leave.

"I'm gonna guess that you two are going to go over mission plans or something?"

Shikadai turned back to the camera and shrugged.

"Something like that."

Boruto chuckled slightly; leave it to Shikadai to hate anything resembling effort yet end up planning for a mission on a Saturday.

"Okay then. Talk to you later man. Thanks for the help."

This time, the Nara boy actually smiled, if subtly.

"No problem. Maybe we can get lunch tomorrow or something; I'm still in town until Wednesday I think."

Boruto offered a similar gesture, happy to accept the invitation.

"For sure. See ya'."

And at that, the blonde's face disappeared from Shikadai's screen.

* * *

Turning back to the door, the young Nara called to his friend and teammate.

"Hey Inojin; you can come in now."

As such, Inojin, slipped into the room, closing the door behind him, although curiously, he clicked the lock, something Shikadai didn't fail to notice.

"So what's up? Bring your games with you, or were we just going to hang out?"

Offering a grin, Inojin rubbed the back of his head indicating some clear embarrassment. This earned a roll of the eyes from Shikadai; every time he saw the pale boy, he swore something had to go wrong.

"...Actually, I forgot my games at home. I figured we could just relax since we don't have to worry about a mission until this Wednesday."

Internally, Shikadai pumped his fist.

_Knew it was Wednesday. See mom? I don't need a calendar._

Externally however, the eye rolling from earlier only continued.

"Really? What do you consider relaxing? We could go cloud watching if you wa-"

Inojin interrupted the Nara boy with a frantic escape plan of sorts, determined to avoid the hellish pursuit that appeared to plague the Nara clan.

"Shika, I adore you, but if I go cloud watching with you one more time I think I'm going to ask Boruto-San to hit me in the head with a Rasengan."

Snorting a tad, Shikadai jokingly raised his hands in a lackadaisical show of surrender.

"Alright, alright, although I'm still not sure what it is you have against cloud watching."

Inojin's lips made a thin line before he replied in a manner which, from anybody else, would be considered hilariously rude.

"Because it's boring, and boring things are a waste of time. I swear, Shika, you should get out more."

Exhaling, Shikadai turned away from Inojin, swiveling in his chair while he replied.

"Well shit, didn't know I was so _boring_, Inojin."

This earned a rare laugh from the Yamanaka youth, one which admittedly left Shikadai's ears feeling strangely warm as the blonde boy crossed the room.

"I only said cloud watching was boring, Shika; why would I be here if I found you boring?"

Turning back around, Shikadai finally stood up to face Inojin, his enjoyment of the little game the two were playing as they danced around each other's words becoming more and more evident.

"I dunno. Why _are_ you here?"

Stalwart as ever, Inojin shrugged.

"For you, obviously."

Shikadai's face now felt much like his ears had moment ago; a tad hot. Of course, he was used to this. He spent day in day out with Inojin, so the occasional blush was nothing new. Regardless, he quickly steadied himself, determined to remain composed. Inojin, however, had other plans.

"Anyway, I was going to say we should watch a movie. You've got a laptop and we can both fit on your bed, and even though I didn't bring my games, I _did_ bring some of mom's DVDs."

Shikadai pondered this idea for a second before shrugging his shoulders and motioning to grab his laptop.

"Alright. Better than nothing."

Inojin gave the boy an inquisitive look at that statement.

"Really? I thought you'd prefer nothing, if I'm being honest."

Again, this got Shikadai to snort, although this time, the Nara couldn't hold back a proper smile from finding its way to his face. Shaking his head, the boy turned around, laptop in hand, and spoke.

"Never change, Inojin. Never change."

Needless to say, the two boys had a good afternoon.

* * *

The rest of the weekend flew by like a breeze, and come Monday, Boruto found himself called to his Sensei's house. This wasn't unusual, with Konohamaru-Sensei being the lazy bastard that he was.

_I swear, he and Shikadai would be a match made in heaven... anyway, this better be good. I've got a date tonight and I swear to God if we're leaving on a mission, I'm going to be pissed._

Despite this though, when Boruto got there, he found that only his Sensei was standing outside the gates of his home. No Sarada (unfortunately), and no Mitsuki (slightly less unfortunately). Now that _was_ unusual. Of course, within a few moments of the older shinobi's explanation of the situation, it began to make sense.

"You're going _where?!_"

Konohamaru rolled his neck and rubbed his temples at the sound of the blonde-haired boy in front of him. Boruto really was his father's son, wasn't he? Regardless, the Jonin answered quite quickly, no emotion about his words besides a mild, growing annoyance.

"I'm going to Rice Country on a solo mission. There's been an emergency call from the Daimyo about a potential attempt on his life, and the mission been assigned too high of a rank to bring you along."

Boruto scoffed at this notion, as expected.

"But Sensei, what about Mitsuki and Sarada? Have you told them?! What about our team?"

Konohamaru closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He may have loved his baby brother, but there was only so much Uzumaki energy a man could take, and he was reaching his limit.

"Boruto, this isn't the first time I've been on a solo mission while we've been a team, and it certainly won't be the last. Why is it exactly that you're so up in arms about it this time?"

This statement actively rendered the boy silent for a few seconds, a rather rare occurrence to say the least. Konohamaru thus sought to inquire further.

"Boruto?"

The boy soon snapped out of his silence, moving his gaze upwards with a clear hint of anxiety in his eyes.

"I-... I'm just worried after that last mission, Sensei."

Konohamaru sighed, the exaggerated reaction making a little bit more sense now. Offering a smile, the Jonin spoke with a diminished annoyance, to say the least.

"I swear, Boruto, sometimes you surprise me. You know I'll be fine; I'm fully healed!"

Boruto rolled his eyes, shooting a glare at the well-over-a-month old bandages wrapped around his Sensei's shoulder. Instead of speaking, first he chose to jab the shoulder with a finger, earning a hiss of pain from his teacher.

"Ouch! Dammit Boruto-"

Taking this as an opportunity to prove a point, the blonde interrupted his sensei.

"See! Not healed! You know I don't get worried a lot, niisan, but if the mission's too high rank for us to go on as a team, it's probably too unsafe for you to go on if you're still screaming after a poke to the shoulder!"

Konohamaru, dejected, spoke under his breath at first, before actively addressing his student's concerns.

"...Not screaming... damn brat... ANYWAY! Boruto, I'm fine, really. It's an A-Rank mission but it's primarily just a protection mission. The only reason it's ranked so high is because a Daimyo is involved. The Rice Daimyo is famous for being paranoid though, so it'll probably just be a week or two of sitting around his palace before heading home."

Standing in contemplation for a second, the younger ninja's featured softened again as he replied to his Sensei.

"...Alright. Just be careful alright? And you've told the rest of the team?"

Konohamaru nodded, patting Boruto on the shoulder as he did so.

"I appreciate the concern, otouto. Yeah, I'm meeting with them all today individually; it seemed easier since I figured at least _one _of you brats would take it rough."

At that, Boruto couldn't help but let out a light laugh, although it was more restrained than usual. Soon after, Konohamaru waved goodbye and flickered off, surely to go meet with one of the blonde's teammates. He knew that his oniisan was a great Shinobi; hell, he'd seen what his jutsu had done to that missing ninja last time they'd been out on a mission. But still.. the Uzumaki couldn't help but shake a bad feeling about the whole thing.

Maybe seeing Sarada would help.

_Seeing Sarada always helps._

* * *

Konohamaru was only one-hundred leagues out of Konoha, the sun still a couple of hours from setting, when he was ambushed. At first, he'd assumed the rustling nearby was just the wind blowing through the leaves as he leaped from branch to branch, but as it persisted, his honed senses spoke otherwise. Thus, he kept his right hand at the side of his leg while he jumped through the trees, prepared to draw a weapon at just a moment's notice. Soon after, the sound grew more distinguished, a blur of movement accompanying him a few trees deeper into the forest. Training his eyes on the target, Konohamaru made sure to stay wary, now certain he was about to be attacked.

_This guy's keeping up with me. He must be pretty damned fast._

Idiotically, it didn't occur to him to worry about a potential second assailant. The first blow of the battle took him by surprise as a fist sailed into his left cheek, knocking the Jonin out of the air and to the forest floor. Luckily for Konohamaru, he had been high enough that as he flew towards the ground, he had time to right himself so that upon landing, he skidded along the grass as opposed to landing on his body.

_Shit. Where did that come from?_

His kunai now drawn and held tight in his right hand, Konohamaru's eyes darted upwards, scanning the treeline around him for any signs of movement. Soon enough, he managed to lock on to a pair of black blurs, each bouncing between trees and and slowly approaching him from both sides. Desperate for a way to attack both, Konohamaru tossed his kunai in the direction of the figure approaching from the right, and prepared to strike the target on his left when, again, out of nowhere, he was struck, although this time, the blow hit him straight from behind, an elbow strike to the kidney.

Stifling his collapse forwards with his right leg to catch his weight, Konohamaru quickly turned heel and swung with a precise right straight, making contact with yet another black figure which immediately vanished in a puff of smoke. Immediately turning back to face the two previous attackers, he registered both just in time to draw another kunai. The figure on his left bounced off of a tree with a chain of some sort in his hands, and the figure on his right held a rapier, prepared to pierce the Jonin without hesitation.

_Wait... a rapier?_

Taking his chances and measuring the potential threat of taking on either option head on, Konohamaru opted to parry the right-hand attacker's leaping thrust with his kunai, sliding the blade alongside the man's sword until he could safely push the attack away. He then followed this up by rotation on his right leg, hitting the man with a spinning left legged back kick to his chest, knocking him several feet backwards.

On the left, the chain wielder had already closed in, a swing of his weapon well underway. Unable to counter the attack with his fire techniques since he was in a densely wooded area, the Sarutobi heir raised his left arm to receive the brunt of the chain's hit. Immediately, he grit his teeth with pain as the steel weapon wrapped itself around his arm, followed by the sensation of a strong pull from his enemy. Resisting this, Konohamaru pulled back with his left arm much harder than the man had bargained for, yanking the opponent towards him with such force that he was actually pulled through the air. This allowed the Jonin to strike the now airborne assailant with a right handed hook to the face, smashing him to the ground. That man wouldn't be getting up.

Immediately, the Konoha shinobi felt the chain loosen, but of course, this was a deceptive sense of peace which quickly found itself ruined by the briefly forgotten other attacker, who was now rushing with a thrust in mind. Turning to face his next enemy, Konohamaru moved to block the attack with his left hand, planning to form a Rasengan to put the attacker down for good, but instead, he found the chain, still wrapped around his arm, now as taut as it had been initially, the cloaked figure on the ground sporting a barely visible smile at this turn of events.

So, without the time or mobility necessary to counter, Konohamaru was pierced through his midsection, gritting his teeth in pain as it happened. Stumbling backwards, the Konoha Jonin moved his right hand to cover his stab wound, the sword at fault now withdrawn. As it turns out, blood loss makes it very hard to keep yourself on your feet, and soon enough, Konohamaru couldn't hold himself up, falling backwards to the ground and only keeping his back straight through leaning against a tree. Through those same grit teeth, the Shinobi spoke, clearly pained as he did so.

"Wh-...W-who are you?"

The only response he received from the man holding the rapier was a high pitched chuckle, and much more audible, much more _recognizable, _half-faced grin beneath the shadow of his hood, followed by a few words.

"Who else, Sarutobi-Kun?"

* * *

**A/N: **Oh shit! Stuff's heating up! Hopefully you guys didn't mind the little step away from pure BoruSara; I do find it important to remind people that this story does have an actual plot haha. Anyway, please review and tell me your thoughts, I thoroughly hope you enjoyed it, and even more importantly hope you're all safe amid this rather scary time in the real world. Have a lovely day.


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